May 6, 2010
2010 All-America & Johnny Bench Candidate
Full Power Rankings | Less than two days remaining:
UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. - Following a record-tying weekend, Penn State junior catcher Ben Heath (Huntersville, N.C.) has cracked the Rivals.com weekly college baseball power rankings for the first time all season. Heath is rated as the sixth best catcher in the nation among all 301 Division I teams. The All-America and Johnny Bench Award candidate is one of two Big Ten catchers ranked, along with Michigan's Chris Berset, who comes in seventh.
Rivals.com, powered by Yahoo.com, unveils weekly positional power rankings throughout the entire college baseball season. Heath's ranking marks his first and the first for any Penn State player all season.
With 10 regular season games still remaining, Heath has enjoyed one of the best seasons in school history as he enters the weekend with a .383 average, 17 home runs and 53 RBI. Those 17 long balls are already tied with Dave Simononis for the Penn State single-season record, originally set in 1978. Heath has averaged a home run every 9.8 at-bats while slugging .772 overall and .915 in the Big Ten.
A Johnny Bench Award candidate, Heath ranks at or near the top in most every statistical category (among the 71 catchers on the watch list): first in home runs (17), extra-base hits (31), total bases (129) and slugging percentage (.772), second in OPS (1.229) and runs scored (47) and fourth in RBI (53). He is also ranked in the top 10 in hits (62) and doubles (14).
Come to Medlar Field at Lubrano Park to see Heath and the rest of the Nittany Lions play host to Iowa this Friday (7 p.m.), Saturday (4 p.m.) and Sunday (11 a.m.). All three games will be broadcast live on the Big Ten Network. Purchase your tickets today!
Season and individual game tickets are now available can be purchased online or over the phone. Please call 1-877-997-7453 or (814) 272-1711, Monday through Friday from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. for more information. Fans can also direct any additional questions or comments via phone, or by email (psubaseball@athletics.psu.edu).
Baseball camp information is now available. Call the Sports Camp Office at (814) 865-0561 or email them at SportCampInfo@outreach.psu.edu for more information.
Follow Penn State baseball on Twitter: www.twitter.com/psubaseball.