For the HBCU Baseball Black College World Series National Champion Florida Memorial Lions, this fall has been great. Along with many key players returning, FMU baseball has been able to add some new faces that should be impact guys for the 2024 season. Ernie Farrell, a native of New York (Monroe CC) is a key addition who likely will enter the year as the new starting third baseman. The former JUCO All-American adds some juice to the lineup. Also added to the team is transfer Alejandro Fernandez (Paine University), a catcher who has stood out this fall. On the mound key additions will be LHP Juan Anderson, RHP Stephen West and RHP Carlos Solano. All three guys should see a good number of innings in the spring.
Key position returners from the conference tournament team and BCWS National Championship team include Luis Ruiz, Ivan Zombrano, Ulises Rodriguez, Reinaldo Prieto, and two-way player Kyle Morrison. On the mound, Max Charnin, William Hiciano, Jamal Johnson, Kelvin Feliciano, and Kyle Morrison all return for the Lions. This core group of veterans, mixed in with the new faces, have made this fall competitive at every position.
The fall has included faces like HOF Barry Larkin (Reds), All- Star Jazz Chisholm (Marlins), Mark Vientos (Mets) among others who have regularly been at fall practices working with players.
This group has a chance to be a very good team. If they can play hard for each other, and commit to playing winning baseball, they will be competitive again in the conference and hopefully make another run at the BCWS to defend the national title for 2024.