WICHITA, Kan. – San Diego State junior Poncho Ruiz (Tijuana, Mexico) was named to the initial Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year Award watch list of the 2023 campaign, as announced Friday by the Wichita Sports Commission.
During his sophomore season in 2022, Ruiz was one of two SDSU players to start 54 of 55 games (Caden Miller), recording a slash line of .309/.413/.459, all of which ranked second on the team. He also led the Aztecs with 43 runs scored and 30 walks while sharing the top spot with five home runs. His walk total tied for eighth in the Mountain West.
In addition, Ruiz finished second on the squad in hits (64), doubles (14) and total bases (95) while occupying the third position in RBIs (33). The Tijuana, Mexico, native also tied for third on the team with multiple hits in 15 games and had two or more RBIs in seven contests. He owned SDSU's second-longest hitting streak of the 2022 season at 11 games (April 19-May 6) after hitting safely in nine straight outings earlier in the year (Feb. 19-March 4).
Ruiz batted .452 (19-42) when leading off an inning last year and also brought home nine runners from third base in 14 chances with less than two outs for a 64.3 percent success rate.
Defensively, Ruiz threw out 13 would-be base stealers in 2022, which ranked second in the Mountain West, and tied for fourth with three runners picked off. He also occupied the fourth spot in the conference with 404 putouts, finishing with a .978 fielding percentage.
This season, Ruiz has hit safely in his last three starts, hitting .400 (4-10) in that stretch with three RBIs. In the Aztecs' 3-2 thriller over Hawai'i on Feb. 27, he went 2-for-4 with an RBI and scored the eventual game-winning run after reaching on a one-out single.
Prior to the 2023 campaign, Ruiz was also ranked No. 24 among the top 100 catchers nationally in D1Baseball.com's preseason player rankings.
A total of 65 catchers were nominated for the Buster Posey National Collegiate Catcher of the Year Award by their respective schools. Because the award is given annually to the top Division I collegiate catcher, the list will be updated to include other candidates until May 8, 2023.
On May 22, 2023, the watch list will be narrowed down to the semifinalists, and ballots will be sent to the national voting committee at the end of May for a vote to determine the three finalists. The finalists will be announced on June 6. A final vote among the national committee will occur during the College World Series. All finalists will be brought to Wichita and the winner will be announced on June 29.
Ruiz and the Aztecs are in action this weekend when they open Mountain West play against UNLV in a three-games series, March 3-5, in Las Vegas, Nevada.