![Florida St. infielder Alex Lodise (1) reacts to his double at second base during the first inning of an NCAA college baseball matchup Tuesday, March 25, 2025 at VyStar Ballpark in Jacksonville, Fla. FSU rallied to defeat UF 8-4 off a walk-off grand slam from Alex Lodise in the ninth inning. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union]](https://images2.minutemediacdn.com/image/upload/c_crop,x_0,y_0,w_6000,h_3375/c_fill,w_720,ar_16:9,f_auto,q_auto,g_auto/images/ImagnImages/mmsport/270/01jvnk0ph421cr0em0r7.jpg "Florida St. infielder Alex Lodise (1) reacts to his double at second base during the first inning of an NCAA college baseball matchup Tuesday, March 25, 2025 at VyStar Ballpark in Jacksonville, Fla. FSU rallied to defeat UF 8-4 off a walk-off grand slam from Alex Lodise in the ninth inning. [Corey Perrine/Florida Times-Union]")
FSU shortstop Alex Lodise joined FSU baseball from the transfer portal before the 2024 season and proved to be an upgrade defensively and offensively over the previous options in his first season.
He batted .281 with nine home runs and 44 RBI. He had a .363 on-base percentage, striking out 64 times, walking 19, and had 10 HBP. Lodise had 61 hits, scored 50 runs, and stole 6-7 bases in 62 games last year.
He only committed 12 errors in 222 chances (.946 field percentage).
What if I told you he obliterated all those numbers in 12 fewer games to become an All-ACC shortstop, ACC Defensive Player of the Year, and ACC Player of the Year?
Here's how he did it.
Alex Lodise batted .422 with 17 home runs and 63 RBI. He had a .483 on-base percentage, striking out 43 times, walking 22, and had four HBP. Lodise had 87 hits, scored 50 runs, and stole 6-6 bases while playing and starting in all 50 games this year.
He only committed five errors in 187 chances (.973 fielding percentage).
Mind you, Lodise did this without having players like first-round draft picks James Tibbs III and Cam Smith in the lineup this year. He did it without having fourth-round draft picks Jaime Ferrer and Marco Dinges in the lineup.
Max Williams and Myles Bailey will likely hear their names called in an MLB Draft soon, but FSU only had one other batter with 15 or more home runs this year.
The FSU baseball lineup last year had FIVE guys with 15+ home runs. Opposing teams knew Lodise was the best hitter in the lineup and it didn't matter. Lodise was like Cyndi Lauper, cause he delivered time after time and led FSU to its best regular-season finish in over a decade.
He should be in contention for the Golden Spikes Award(baseball's equivalent to the Heisman), but there's still a lot of baseball left. However, I wanted to acknowledge all the hard work he put in to accomplish this feat. Congrats to Alex on a job well done!