By PAUL GOTHAM
Posting numbers similar to his sophomore year when he garnered NJCAA First Team All-American honors, Johnny Ricotta (Greece Athena/Monroe CC) was named Mid-American Conference (MAC) Co-Player of the Week for the week of March 18-24th.
Ricotta helped Ball State University to a 5-0 week hitting .591 with 11 RBI and six extra-base hits. The senior first baseman collected four walks for an OBP of .654, and he slugged 1.045 for the week.
The Cardinals swept conference foe Western Michigan in a three-game series which Ricotta went 10-for-16 with three doubles and a home run. He finished the week with four multi-hit games.
As a sophomore at Monroe, Ricotta led the Tribunes hitting .410 with 15 home runs and 61 RBI on the season. He had 71 hits, and on-base percentage of .457, slugged .815 and was named First Team NJCAA All American.
Ricotta smashed MCC’s single-season home run record of 12 that was set by Brian Stevens in 1989 and equaled by Nelson Santos in 2006. He also finished his career with 20 roundtrippers, which broke Santos’s old mark of 18. Ricotta also tied the single-game home run record with three bombs a 12-4 win over Mercyhurst North East.
A second team All-State performer as a senior in high school, Ricotta hit .575 with 11 doubles and three home runs for Jason Bunting’s Greece Athena Trojans. Ricotta was a four-time All-County performer at Athena.
Leave a Reply