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Staten Island, NY – Senior outfielder
Ben Ruta (West Windsor, NJ/West-Windsor Plainsboro South) was selected by the New York Yankees in the 30th round of the 2016 Major League Baseball (MLB) First-Year Player Draft on Saturday.
Saturday's draft marks the second consecutive season in which a Seahawk player heard his name in the draft. Ruta now joins former teammates
Nick Dini (2015, 14th round, Kansas City Royals),
Nolan Long (2015, 16th round, Los Angeles Dodgers) and Ian Miller (2013, 14th round, Seattle Mariners) as recent players to be taken while playing for head coach and 2015 Northeast Conference Coach of the Year,
Jim Carone.
The West Windsor, NJ native earned All-Northeast Conference (NEC) First Team honors for the second straight time in 2016 after batting .343 in 51 games this season. Ruta scored 32 runs, good for second on the team while producing a team-high 16 doubles. During his productive senior campaign, Ruta had the fourth-highest hit total in the NEC with 68 while manufacturing 21-multiple hit games, a team-best.
Ruta rattled off an impressive 12-game hit streak (March 12 through April 1) in which he produced significantly against left-handed pitching, batting .439 against southpaws, while converting for a .475 average with runners in scoring position (28-for-59).
The veteran Green & White outfielder garnered his first NEC Player of the Week accolade after batting .714 (10-for-14) in a four-game sweep of 2015 league champions, Sacred Heart, in which he crossed the plate seven times and drove in four RBIs.
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