Coming behind a legend is such a difficult proposition for a coach. Bethune-Cookman (B-CU) has had such a high level of performance in baseball that it has produced two legendary baseball coaches back-to-back. With Sunday’s win in the SWAC Baseball Championship, Jonathan “Johnny” Hernandez is making room in a talented legacy.
Merv Melendez established the Wildcats as a force to be reckoned with by not only dominating the MEAC, but picking up wins from mid-majors and Power Four schools along the way. He was followed by Jason Beverlin who continued to high levels of accomplishment.
Beverlin’s 2017 Wildcats achieved the improbable. They won the MEAC and made serious noise in the NCAA Regional in Gainesville. They defeated the Florida Gators for the first time in school history in the championship round, before falling to the No.3-seeded Gators in the championship game. Beverlin was immediately scooped up after that performance.
Big cleats to fill at Bethune-Cookman
In 2018, Hernandez was hired to take over the program. There was a shadow of success and extremely large shoes to fill. Hernandez, who had success both as head coach of ASA College in Miami and as a coach/recruiter for Team USA baseball, took the challenge head-on. It was not easy to start, however, he had an immediate impact. His 2019 class was the highest-ranked class in B-CU history at 59th as ranked by Perfect Game.
“Coach Beverlin and Coach Melendez, those two guys did great things here in our program,” Hernandez said. “For us to be able to get the program back where it needs to be, and that’s at the top of what is now the Southwestern Athletic Conference, when I took the job, we were in the Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference and it was an opportunity for us to get right back to it. Having that championship mindset day in and day out, I wear that on my sleeve every day.”
Transitional phase
Hernandez began with a 17-38 season in 2019. The 2020 and 2021 seasons were COVID-interrupted years. The Wildcats would transition to the SWAC in 2021, where the first season was played in 2022. The Wildcats managed a 27-32 season on the restart of baseball. Since then, each of the last three seasons, B-CU has won 30-plus games. In 2023, the team went 33-27, in 2024 the team went 32-27, and this year the Wildcats are sitting at 37-21, Hernandez’s best season ever.
The team also brought home the first SWAC title in school history after dominating the MEAC to capture 17 titles. It is a clear signal that Hernandez was the right choice to lead B-CU for the future. Additionally, in the era of APR, Hernandez has a perfect record of student-athlete academic success.
“I have to commend our players too, because we had a 3.5 GPA in the fall and a 3.5 GPA in the spring. So that’s back-to-back championships in the classroom that ultimately lead to what we have right now, a SWAC baseball title in front of us. It’s been a grind, but I’ve enjoyed every part of the process, and you start to see the fruit of the labor right now with how the program has evolved in the last couple of years.”
Bethune-Cookman wins SWAC Championship with walkoff homer
It was only fitting that B-CU’s best-ever home run-hitting team capture the SWAC championship with a walk-off homer deep to center field with two outs in the final inning of the SWAC Baseball Tournament against in-state rival FAMU. As Andrey Martinez’s blast cleared the centerfield fence, the chess match was complete with a checkmate from B-CU’s Johnny Hernandez to FAMU’s Jamey Shouppe. B-CU has hit 90 home runs this season.
While the two schools are arch rivals, the respect that Hernandez and Shouppe have for one another is unmatched. The pregame meetings at home plate have often been comical. When the game starts though, it’s every man for himself. The Rattlers derailed the Wildcats’ first opportunity at a SWAC title in 2023, so it was only fitting that in much the way they have played all season, they beat the Rattlers with the last at-bat of the tournament.
Hernandez had one final word for any Rattlers in Tallahassee who love to watch baseball. “If there’s any cousins of ours that rocked the orange and green, if they want to come out and support, I think it’ll be huge. For our program and for the SWAC to have everybody involved to come out and support the Wildcats as we’re representing not only our program, our university, but the Southwestern Athletic Conference and the HBCU space as a whole.”The Wildcats are the only Division-I HBCU to make the NCAA Regionals.