'A grind unlike any': Jamey Shouppe reflects on season, tells what's next for FAMU baseball

Less than two weeks ago, Florida A&M baseball attempted to win its first-ever game in the NCAA Tournament.

The Rattlers (29-30) fell short of accomplishing that goal at the Gainesville Regional. They narrowly lost to national No. 2 seed Florida 3-0 on June 2 and 10th-ranked UConn 9-6 on June 3 in the four-team, double-elimination tournament.

Florida defeated Texas Tech in the championship to move on to the Super Regional, where it hosted and advanced to the Men's College World Series after sweeping South Carolina.

FAMU head coach Jamey Shouppe admitted his team's mood was a bit gloomy after losing in the regionals. Still, Shouppe can reflect on the 2023 season knowing it was one for the record books.

"I was numb for awhile and I think the players were too. But at the end of the day, we had a great season," Shouppe told the Tallahassee Democrat. "It's kind of hard to realize that when you feel like you had a chance to shock the world at Florida. Once you sit back and reflect, it sounds and feels a little bit better than it did at the end of last week.

"They're good men and students and they happen to be pretty good baseball players. That's how you have good seasons like we had this year."

The Rattlers season included winning the program's first Southwestern Athletic Conference (SWAC) Championship over Bethune-Cookman on May 28 ― the 23rd conference title in FAMU baseball history.

It was Shouppe's third conference championship ― all with FAMU. He coached the Rattlers to winning the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference (MEAC) in 2015 and 2019 along with the 2023 SWAC trophy. In those years, he's led FAMU to all of the program's three NCAA Tournament appearances.

Winning the SWAC reversed the Rattlers' late season struggles that included losing nine of their last 12 regular season games.

After falling to the tournament's loser's bracket by squandering a lead to Alabama State in the SWAC second round, FAMU won four consecutive elimination games. That included beating defending champions ASU twice on the way to hoisting the trophy over BCU in Atlanta.

"We didn't panic when things went bad at the end of the season," Shouppe said as he looked back on the year. "We played 59 games over the course of a three month period. Baseball is such a tough game mentally. It beats you up and is a grind unlike any other sport. The last thing players need is the coach to mentally beat them up further.

"Everything came together, including everybody being healthy at the end of the season and we played our best baseball to win the SWAC Tournament."

FAMU turns in a record-breaking and championship season that leads to well-deserved recognition

A historic year it was for the Rattlers as they became FAMU's first men's team to capture a SWAC title since joining the conference in 2021.

This FAMU squad also holds an abundance of program records including hits (610), RBI (414), doubles (114), and homeruns (73).

Infielder Sebastian Greico broke FAMU's single-season homerun record with 17 to surpass Sean 'Bo' Gilliam's and Keith Maxwell's former record of 15.

"Our guys enjoy playing at FAMU," Shouppe said. "We just coach good baseball and make it fun for our guys. We want good men that come in and buy into our system of coaching and playing the game."

Following the Gainesville Regional, catcher Ty Hanchey became the first-ever Rattler to be named to an NCAA Regional All-Tournament team.

Furthermore, four Rattlers will represent in the inaugural HBCU Swingman Classic during MLB's All-Star Weekend on July 7 in Seattle, Washington ― outfielder Janmikell Bastardo, shortstop Jalen Niles, pitcher Hunter Viets, and Hanchey.

"We don't have all the resources, but that's just an excuse sometimes," Shouppe said. "You still have to put your work in. You put the work in during the season and when it gets to tournament time and postseason baseball, you've basically done your work and it's time to sit back and see what kind of job you've done and how much of that you're able to retain.

"We played well down the stretch and I couldn't be more proud of these young men."

Instead of vacationing, Jamey Shouppe is looking for the next batch of Rattlers to build championship athletes and men

FAMU is losing eight players to graduation ― Tyler Dunbar, Jay Hall, Ethan Jenkins, Griffin Long, Zach Morea, Jared Weber, Hanchey, and Viets.

Hanchey and Viets were two of FAMU's five All-SWAC selections this season. Morea was named the SWAC Tournament's Most Valuable Player (MVP) after pitching in all six games and recording four saves in the Rattlers' final four victories.

"There were some large contributors in that group that's no longer going to be with us," Shouppe said of his graduates. "[Morea and Weber] were with me for five years and won two conference championships. Viets has a chance to be drafted and play professionally. [Hanchey] has a big chance of getting drafted and got a lot of interest from a lot of different people ― the [Atlanta] Braves and the [San Francisco] Giants were on him late in the season.

"The problem with the draft now is it's only 20 rounds, so a lot of good players get left undrafted."

There's no summer vacation for Shouppe since he's losing so much talent in this senior class.

Shouppe is already on the recruiting trail. He spent last weekend in Vero Beach and West Palm Beach fielding talent for his 2023-2024 team.

"We got to replace some key elements," Shouppe said. "As always, the transfer portal has been good to us in the past. You never know when you'll pick up a gem and hopefully we'll pick up one or two of those and be right back in the same position we ended the season this year.

"We're always looking to improve. The main thing is that we have to do more in developing these young men to go out in society to be productive. That's the most intentional thing we do because these parents trust us with their young men.

"We expect more and hopefully next year we can win another SWAC title get the first regional victory in school history."

Gerald Thomas, III covers Florida A&M University Athletics for the Tallahassee Democrat. Contact him via email at gdthomas@gannett.com or on Twitter @3peatgee.

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This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: FAMU Baseball: Jamey Shouppe recaps the Rattlers championship season