LOCK HAVEN, PA – West Chester University senior first baseman
Mike Ferrara (Jamison, Pa./Archbishop Wood) was one of five male athletes competing in spring sports throughout the Pennsylvania State Athletic Conference to be named to the PSAC Spring Top 10 announced Wednesday afternoon.
The conference award, voted on by the league's sports information directors, is presented to 10 student-athletes (five male/five female) each season with those recipients having to achieve a minimum of a 3.50 cumulative grade-point average and be a starter, or key reserve, with legitimate athletic credentials. With Ferrara's selection to the Spring Top 10, he is now eligible for the PSAC Pete Nevins Scholar Athlete of the Year award, an honor given to the top overall PSAC student-athlete (male and female) at the end of the academic year.
Ferrara, who helped West Chester to the NCAA Division II National Championships earlier this month, becomes the 49th West Chester individual and the sixth baseball player to be named to the Springb Top 10 list. It also marks the second Top 10 honor for a West Chester athlete this year. He joins national champion and All-America swimmer Ann Carozza, who was a Winter Top 10 honoree earlier this year.
Ferrara led the Golden Rams in hitting with a .367 batting average (66-for-180). He banged out 24 doubles and 11 home runs while knocking in 69 runs. He posted a .683 slugging percentage and had nine sacrifice flies on the year. He appeared in and started 50 games for the Golden Rams and authored a 1.146 OPS. He was an All-PSAC selection and an All-Atlantic Region selection while being named to the all-tournament team at the national finals in Cary, N.C.
Ferrara hit .384 (5-for-13) in West Chester's four games at the championship site with two doubles and two home runs. He scored seven runs and knocked in five others – accounting for 12 of the 25 runs that the Golden Rams scored in their four games. He added a .556 on-base percentage and a 1.000 slugging percentage, demonstrating why he was one of the dominant hitters at the finals. In addition to his five hits and five RBI, Ferrara was also hit five times by a pitch.
