2022 D2CCA All-West Region Awards

RUSSELLVILLE, Ark. – Just a week after he was named to an All-PacWest Team for the second time in his career, Academy of Art baseball redshirt senior infielder Dominic Ruggiero has collected another postseason award after he was named to the Division II Conference Commissioners Association All-West Region Second Team on Wednesday. It is the first time receiving the honor in his career. 

Just like he did on the All-PacWest Second Team, Ruggiero earned his spot aboard the D2CCA All-West Region Second Team as a utility fielder as the Porter Ranch, Calif. native nearly split his season down the middle with a total of 18 games at shortstop, 15 games at second base and three games at designated hitter. It was a career-best batting average for Ruggiero at .351 (47-for-134) in 35 games played, which was not only the highest average on ART U and sixth-best in the PacWest (third-best single-season average in ART U history with a minimum of 100 at-bats).

In addition to leading the Knights in slugging percentage (.455), on-base percentage (.389) and OPS (.844), he recorded 20 runs scored, eight doubles, three triples and 19 runs batted in. The three triples were tied for a career-best as well as tied for eighth most in the PacWest. A heads-up runner on the basepaths, Ruggiero posted a reached base safely streak of 17 games and was 10-for-12 (.833) in stolen base attempts, the second most stolen bases on ART U. 

This is the third time in ART U history that an Urban Knight has been selected to a D2CCA All-West Region team, and all three instances have happened in consecutive seasons. The first Urban Knight to do so was Thomas Delgadillo with second team honors in 2019, while Ty Conrad also picked up second team honors last season in 2021 (no awards given in 2020).