BOCA RATON — It’s a 9-mile drive from West Boca Raton High School to Florida Atlantic University along busy Glades Road.
And when James Litman, one of Palm Beach County’s best pitching prospects of recent years, began considering where to play college baseball, that was as far as he needed to look.
After attending FAU games as a boy and visiting the campus as a West Boca sophomore, Litman said he decided early on that the school “was a perfect home.”
The Owls might say the feeling is mutual. Shortly after he set foot on campus last fall, the hard-throwing right-hander made an early impression, pitching coach Jordan Tabakman said.
“You could tell there was a lot there right off the bat,” Tabakman said. “He carried himself with a lot of maturity, as if he’d been at the college level for multiple years. … He was our most dominant pitcher from the get-go, and not just commanding one pitch. He was mixing three pitches and getting college hitters out with ease. It was a lot of fun to watch.”
Litman earned a spot in FAU’s three-man weekend rotation and has remained there all season. After 11 starts, he’s 3-2 with a 4.93 ERA and 41 strikeouts in 45 2/3 innings. “He’s giving us a chance to win every Sunday,” Tabakman said.
In his latest start, Litman lasted only three innings, giving up four runs on five hits in a 4-2 loss to Charlotte. But the Owls (28-15, 10-8 American Athletic Conference) have won seven of the 11 games he’s started.
Litman made one start as a freshman at West Boca and was the staff ace for the next three years. His high school statistics: 19-9, 1.79 ERA, 240 strikeouts in 187 2/3 innings. The Bulls made deep playoff runs but never quite reached the state final four, losing in the regional semifinals in 2022 and 2023 and the regional final in 2024.
With a fastball in the low 90s, Litman was on college scouts’ radar by age 15. That’s when FAU coach John McCormack took him on a tour of the campus.
“Coach Mac was very welcoming,” Litman said.
Litman noted that the Owls’ facilities didn’t match those of power conference schools, but that wasn’t a major concern. “I don’t really care about the big pitching labs or any of that,” he said. “I just care about the family.”
The Owls’ family — and his own.
Being close to home “was a big factor because my family’s a big part of my life, so it’s cool that they get to come out and watch me,” Litman said.
Tabakman was immediately impressed with Litman’s maturity.
“It’s a major adjustment,” he said. “For guys that are 18, 19 years old, it can be very intimidating. But you could see the look in his eye — there was no intimidation there. He was ready to compete, he knew what he was here for, he carried himself like he’s been here for three years.”
Freshman starters are rare at most Division I programs, but FAU hasn’t followed the traditional formula. The other two pitchers in the rotation, sophomore Trey Beard and junior Tyler Murphy, started as freshmen.
“We obviously recruited (Litman) heavily, so we knew the potential,” Tabakman said. “Our plans were for him to compete for a starting role right off the bat. We’re comfortable doing that with freshmen; we’ve had a lot of success doing that.”
With three weeks left in the regular season, the Owls are gearing up for the AAC tournament in late May in Clearwater, Fla. They’re among five teams bunched tightly behind conference leader UTSA (33-10, 15-3).
Although injuries to outfielder Jake Duer (foot) and infielder Pat Ward (knee) have forced McCormack to juggle the lineup, Litman is optimistic about the Owls’ prospects.
“I think the team has gotten a lot closer since we lost Duer and Ward,” he said. “I definitely think we can crush the conference championship.”
Meanwhile, Tabakman is looking forward to watching Litman’s career continue to take shape.
“His baseball IQ is off the charts,” the coach said. “So outing to outing, start to start, he’s able to sit down and break things down — what went well, what did not go well — and then really apply it to the following week.
“He’s just getting started. There’s some things he still needs to improve on, which he’s aware of, but what he’s doing this year is all we can ask for.”
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: James Litman stakes place in FAU baseball pitching staff
