FIU hires Mervyl Melendez as baseball coach

Mervyl Melendez will look to add to his 537 career victory total at FIU, which hired him as its baseball coach this week.

Melendez, who resigned after five years at Alabama State (158-117), was named as the fourth coach in FIU baseball history Tuesday.

In his 17 years as a head coach, Melendez has 13 30-win seasons, 12 conference championships and 12 NCAA tournament appearances. Melendez guided his team to victories over a number of ranked opponents, including wins over No. 4 Miami, No. 17 Cal State Fullerton and No. 28 South Alabama.

“I am extremely excited to have the opportunity to lead the FIU baseball program,” Melendez said. “I am looking forward to meeting the players personally. … I can’t say enough about how exciting it is, not only getting back to Florida, but working for an institution that I know a lot about and have competed against in the past. I’m here to get it going; get on the recruiting trail and bring in the student-athletes that I think will represent FIU to the fullest.”

Melendez is the third-youngest coach in Division I history to reach 500 wins and was the second-youngest coach in NCAA history to reach 300.

“We are excited to have Mervyl Melendez leading our baseball program,” FIU athletic director Pete Garcia said. “He has been successful everywhere he has been. We look forward to our baseball program growing under the guidance of coach Melendez.”

Melendez led Alabama State to four consecutive 30-win seasons, including three SWAC Eastern Division championships in a row. During the 2016 season, the Hornets were the only Division I baseball team to go undefeated in conference play, setting a school record with 38 victories, winning the program’s first SWAC championship and earning the first NCAA Division I tournament appearance in school history.

A two-time SWAC Coach of the Year (2014, ’16), Melendez was selected to the coaching staff of USA Baseball’s 17-and-under team in the summer of 2015 and was named to the U.S. 14-and-under coaching staff this summer.

Before joining Alabama State, Melendez spent 12 years at Bethune-Cookman, where he won 11 Mid-Eastern Athletic Conference titles and was named the MEAC Coach of the Year nine times (six in a row from 2006 to ’11). Melendez led the Wildcats to 46 consecutive MEAC regular-season wins, including back-to-back undefeated league seasons in 2010 and ’11 (18-0 both seasons).

An all-conference third baseman and relief pitcher for his alma mater, Melendez began his coaching career as an assistant at B-CU from 1997-99, helping the Wildcats to MEAC titles in ’97 and ’99.

Melendez is a native of Carolina, Puerto Rico, moved to Orlando at age 13 and attended Winter Park Lake Howell High. He is married and has two sons.

This story was originally published July 2, 2016 at 12:05 AM with the headline "FIU hires Mervyl Melendez as baseball coach."