FSU Baseball: Holton, Mendoza Pegged as Preseason All-Americans

A No. 3 national ranking from Baseball America wasn’t the end of the preseason accolades for Florida State on Tuesday morning.

A pair of Seminoles were also named to D1Baseball.com’s preseason All-American team. Left-handed pitcher Tyler Holton was named a first-team selection while corner infielder Drew Mendoza took home second-team honors.

A late-round draft choice of the Miami Marlins, Holton elected to come back for a junior season after an outstanding sophomore campaign. For the year, the lefty posted a 10-3 record with a 2.34 ERA to go with 144 strikeouts in 119.1 innings and a stellar .178 opponents’ batting average.

A highly-touted freshman from Minneola, Mendoza came on strong late last season, displaying his power in the ACC and NCAA Tournaments. Mendoza hit .270 for the season with 10 home runs and 33 RBIs. A pair of those long balls came in the 7-3 win over North Carolina in the ACC Championship.

Holton and Mendoza will look to try to help get the Seminoles back to the College World Series for a second straight season. That hasn’t happened since FSU made three straight appearances in Omaha from 1998 to 2000. FSU opens the season at home against Xavier on Feb. 16.

Mike Ferguson is the editor of The Daily Nole. Follow Mike on Twitter @MikeWFerguson