ALL-NJAC RELEASE
PITMAN, NJ (NJCUGothicKnights.com) |
New Jersey City University senior left fielder
ANDREW RIVERA (Edison, NJ/Edison) has culminated an outstanding four-year career by claiming Honorable Mention All-New Jersey Athletic Conference accolades, in voting by the league's 10 head coaches.
Rivera, the lone NJCU player to earn All-NJAC honors, receives post-season all-conference distinction for the first time in his four-year career.
The NJAC Player of the Week on April 8 in week eight of the 2013 season, he earned New Jersey Collegiate Baseball Association (NJCBA) Division II/III and Eastern College Athletic Conference (ECAC) Division III Metro honors the same week.
Rivera, a 5-foot-9 left-handed hitting Criminal Justice major, also won the three awards during his junior campaign in 2012 and is a two-time winner of all three in his career.
In 2013, he was the only Gothic Knight to play and start in all 39 games (17-22) and led NJCU in batting average, hits, and RBIs.
Rivera batted .331 with 53 hits in 160 at bats, adding 32 RBIs, 23 runs, nine doubles and three triples and tallied a team-best 68 total bases for a .425 slugging percentage.
Rivera walked 12 times (one hit by pitch) and posted a .373 on-base rate and led the club with four sacrifice flies. He was also 9-for-15 in stolen bases. Defensively, he owned a .944 fielding percentage in 89 chances (79 putouts, five assists, five errors).
Rivera led the club in multiple-hit games and multi-RBI games (7).
“He has matured as a player beyond his years,” praised second-year head coach
Jerry Smith. “He was a true college baseball player. He channeled his passion for the game in the right ways. He was the quiet leader of our team; he didn't say much with words just with actions and the way he played the game. When playing a 40-game schedule there's a lot of peaks and valleys; it's how you handle those peaks and valleys. The way he played every game, you couldn't tell if he was 4-for-4, 0-for-4, if we're winning, or if we're losing—he played the same way every single play. He played the game the right way, the way it should be played.”
Smith continued: “We also had weight room [training] on Wednesday and Sunday. A lot of that goes unnoticed. Much like he was the quiet leader on the field, he was the quiet leader in the weight room too, taking the same approach no matter who was around. He's that type of kid.”
In 18 NJAC games,
Rivera had comparable numbers to his overall figures, batting .329 (25-76) with eight RBIs, eight runs, four doubles and 29 total bases while walking five times and stealing five bags in nine attempts. He had a .370 on-base and .382 slugging rate in the league and fielded .955 (41 putouts, one assist, two errors).
In NJAC games, he ranked second in at bats, seventh in hits, 13
th in steals, 17
th in doubles, and 18
th in batting average and total bases. His .400 average with two outs was eighth in conference games and his .423 average in RBI opportunities was 11th.
Overall in the NJAC through May 5,
Rivera ranked third in triples and sacrifice flies, sixth in RBIs and at bats, seventh in runners advanced (19), ninth in average vs. lefties (.400), 10
th in hits and steal attempts, 12
th in average with two outs (.364), average with RBI opportunities (.397) and plate appearances, 13
th in doubles and total bases, 17
th in two-out RBIs (10), 21
st in steals, 22
nd in batting average, and 26
th in slugging and average with runners on base (.357).
Rivera finished his career eighth in school history in RBIs (83), 10
th in at bats (421), 12
th in games started (105), 13
th in games played (116) and total hits (135), 18
th in total bases (175), 19
th in steals (33) and 20
th in triples (8). A .321 career hitter, he tallied 18 doubles and 28 career extra-base hits with a .372 on-base percentage.
His 160 at bats in 2013 are second most in single-season history and
Rivera played and started in each of NJCU's 78 games in his final two seasons. He started 86 consecutive games to close out his career.
—www.njcugothicknights.com—
