Links: Google Cloud Academic All-America Release
NORTH ANDOVER, Mass. – Junior designated hitter
Matthew Ronai of the Merrimack College baseball program added to his award-filled 2018 season on Wednesday afternoon when the Warriors' primary No. 3 hitter was named a Google Cloud Academic All-American as voted on by the College Sports Information Directors of America (CoSIDA).
The Orange, Conn. native becomes just the fourth Academic All-American in program history and the second in the last 22 years. He joined David Miles '93, Chris MacDonald '96 – a two-time Academic All-American – and Joe Mantoni '13 as Warriors who earned this prestigious honor.
Ronai landed on the Google Cloud Academic All-American Third Team and was one of just two Northeast-10 Conference student-athletes to be recognized across the three teams. Ronai ended his junior year with a 3.79 GPA as a sports medicine major.
The All-American slugger was named an all-region selection by three different outlets: the American Baseball Coaches Association (Second Team), Division II Conference Commissioners Association (First Team) and National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (Second Team). For the first time in his career, Ronai earned a spot on the NE10 All-Conference First Team, giving the third-year Warrior three all-league honors in as many years on campus.
Ronai will return for his senior campaign looking to cement his name across Merrimack's hitting records. He hit above .300 (.340) for the third time in as many seasons, setting career highs this past year with 16 doubles and 43 RBI. Ronai added a career-best 67 hits, and is now on pace to join the 200-hit club with 156 base knocks to date. He registered 22 multi-hit games and 10 multi-RBI efforts including one game each with four RBI and five RBI. The three-year starter currently ranks fifth all-time in school history in average (.337), eighth in slugging (.447), fifth in on-base percentage (.397), and 14
th in both hits (156) and RBI (87).
