FSU Baseball's Tibbs, Arnold, Smith earn All-America honors
Release from Florida State Sports Information:
James Tibbs III, Jamie Arnold and Cam Smith were named All-Americans after leading Florida State to the College World Series and No. 3 national ranking.
Tibbs, from Marietta, Ga., was a unanimous first-team selection from Perfect Game, D1Baseball, Baseball America, the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association and the American Baseball Coaches Association. Tibbs started all 66 games in right field for the Seminoles and hit .363 with 91 hits, 18 doubles and 28 home runs, the most for a Seminole since 1999. His 95 RBI were second in the country and also the most at Florida State since 1999.
Tibbs had five multi-home run games in 2024, including a three-home run, six-RBI game vs. UConn in the Super Regional to send Florida State to the 24th College World Series in school history and first since 2019. Tibbs was previously named the ACC Player of the Year and Baseball Scholar-Athlete of the Year and was a first-team All-ACC selection.
Starting pitcher Arnold, from Tampa, was a first-team All-American from Perfect Game, D1Baseball, the NCBWA and ABCA and a second-team choice of Baseball America. Arnold finished the season 11-3 with a 2.98 ERA and 159 strikeouts over 105.2 innings pitched, with just 26 walks. Opponents hit .224 against the left-hander.
Arnold’s 159 strikeouts were fifth in program history and the most since Paul Wilson – the No. 1 overall pick in the 1994 MLB Draft – struck out 163 in 1994. Arnold’s 11 wins are the most for a Seminole since 2012, while his 17 strikeouts at Pittsburgh on May 10 were the most at Florida State since 1987.
Arnold was the Most Outstanding Player of the Tallahassee Regional, first-team All-ACC and earned a spot at the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team training camp tryout later this summer.
Smith, from Lake Worth, was a second-team All-American from Perfect Game and Baseball America and third-team All-American from D1Baseball. The third baseman started all 66 games at the hot corner for the Seminoles and led FSU with a .387 batting average, 104 hits and added a career-high 16 home runs.
Smith’s .387 batting average is the highest for a Seminole since Tyler Holt hit .401 in 2009; his 104 hits were the most for a Nole since Buster Posey’s 119 in 2008. The sophomore had a 56-game on-base streak over the last two seasons, the seventh-longest in program history.
Tibbs and Arnold are FSU’s first first-team All-Americans since Parker Messick in 2022, and the first FSU teammates to earn the honor in the same season since Robert Benincasa, Jayce Boyd and James Ramsey in 2012. That was also the last time FSU had at least three total All-Americans.
*Talk about this story with other die-hard Florida State baseball fans in the FSU Baseball Forum*
