Preseason honors for UH’s Ramirez

Hawaii sophomore Eric Ramirez was ranked as the 28th overall first baseman in college baseball this season and the best in the Big West according to preseason rankings released by D1baseball.com.

Ramirez, who Baseball America tabbed as the eighth-best prospect overall in the Big West for the class of 2017, was fourth among players on the West Coast in the rankings of first basemen. Oregon State’s K.J. Harrison, a 2014 Punahou graduate, was the No. 1-ranked first baseman. Gonzaga’s Taylor Jones was 16th and Arizona’s J.J. Matijevic was No. 22.

Ramirez, who is 6 feet and 220 pounds, hit .270 as a freshman with four doubles, a triple and 29 RBIs. He was hitting .308 after the CSUN series in late-April before tailing off toward the end of the season while struggling with a back injury that forced him to miss the last game against Arizona. He took the entire summer off to recuperate and says he’s 100% entering his sophomore season.

Ramirez is above-average defensively as well, finishing his freshman season with six errors and a .989 fielding percentage.

He was 2-for-8 with a walk and three RBIs and was hit by a pitch in a two-game split against Hawaii Hilo over the weekend while hitting third in the lineup.