As standout baseball player at West Windsor-Plainsboro South High School, Ben Ruta rolled through his senior year in 2012 batting .462 with 20 RBIs and 11 stolen bases. Under head coach Don Hutchinson, Ruta developed into a speedy contact hitting shortstop. Six years later Ruta is a surging prospect in the New York Yankees farm system and the top hitter on Mercer County’s own Trenton Thunder.
Hutchinson says of Ruta, “He had that real nice sweet sing to opposite field, and he learned how to pull the ball as he got stronger. He played a solid shortstop which to be a successful high school team is a critical position…but probably his greatest asset was what he brought out of other players because of the way he conducted himself and went about his business the right way.”
Ruta says to Hutchinson helped him build solid fundamentals. He told The VOICE, “He always harped on hustling around the field, running out ground balls really hard, and he talked a lot about the smarts of the game so knowing situations and knowing what to do and thinking things over before they happen.”
Ruta’s skills and demeanor as a student athlete at WW-PS drew the attention of several college programs. At the end of his senior year, Ruta decided to go to Staten Island, New York to play baseball and major in liberal arts at Wagner College.
Ruta was the beneficiary of an unprecedented hitting streak that spanned over two years. He continued his streak through the final stretch of his freshman season, but two games into his sophomore year he suffered a season ending injury.
According to Wagnerathletics.com Ruta came back and continued the streak that began in 2013, 21 games into the 2015 season. Ruta finished his career at Wagner with .333 batting average, and .939 fielding percentage and even made NEC Spring academic honor roll three years in a row.
In the summer of 2016, Rutas many years of efficient play, and high character would earn him the opportunity in the 30th round of the 2016 draft by the New York Yankees.
“That day obviously was a great day,” Ruta said. “We didn’t have a set team that we wanted to get drafted by… but when we heard it was the Yankees it did make everything more special just from all the memories as a kid.”
Ruta has excelled throughout the minor leagues and progressed at a rarely accelerated pace, playing his way into the double A level in only two years.As Coach Hutchinson explains, “I mean I knew he was a good player but to be truthful, I’m not shocked but I would not have thought that he would have climbed as fast and as high as he has already, so good for him.”
After two seasons playing through the rookie, short A, and full A leagues, Yankees management decided Ruta would bypass the high A league level and begin the 2018 season in Trenton with the double A level Thunder, only 13 miles away from WW-P High School South. (source: MiLB.com)
Nineteen games into the season Ruta leads the team in hits and stolen bases. Leaving his mark on the rest of league as well as he currently leads the entire Eastern League with a .392 batting average according to MILB.com
“Obviously it’s early on right now, I’m just trying to put good at bats together and be a consistent player for the team, but I’m definitely just relying on the hard work and preparation in the offseason and letting that come through in the games.”
With over a hundred games left in the Thunder season, Ruta will most likely be playing in Trenton for the next couple months and will have to excel at the triple A level if he is to fulfill his goal of being called up to the Bronx.
