Ray Ramiz’s professional baseball career has taken off–literally–in just one month.
Ramiz, a resident of Freehold, had just completed a productive collegiate career at Seton Hall University when he was selected by the Seattle Mariners in the 23rd round of the Major League Baseball draft on June 6.
Just two days later, Ramiz took off for Arizona to play for Seattle’s Rookie League team.
Ramiz, who played center field for Seton Hall, has just graduated from the college in May with a bachelor’s degree in marketing.
“It’s good,” Ramiz said.“It is everything that I thought it would be, being a professional baseball player. It has just been really cool so far. It is everything you dream of since you were five years old and someone calls you to tell you that you’ll be a professional baseball player, so it’s been awesome.”
Ramiz was batting .298 and scored 10 runs while driving in three runs in 47 at-bats over a course of 14 games in Arizona when it was time to take off again
On the morning of July 6, Ramiz got called up and was off to Everett, Washington, to play for Seattle’s Single-A Short Season team, the Everett Aquasox.
“It’s good to come out and have some success right away,” he said. “There is definitely a bit of a learning curve coming from college to pro ball. Just with the pitching and the style of the game, it’s a bit different. But, it has been good to have some success right away and hopefully I can keep it up.”
After a standout scholastic career at Christian Brothers Academy in Lincroft, Ramiz sparkled on both the field and in the classroom at Seton Hall.
Ramiz led the Big East Conference this past season with a .429 batting average as well as a .528 on base percentage. Ramiz was also one of only four players to be unanimously selected to the All-Big East First Team this year.
Ramiz was also a three-time academic all-star and received Seton Hall’s Academic Merritt Award for graduating with at least a 3.2 GPA.
Ramiz had always yearned to get drafted, but after not being selected last year, he went into his senior year of college and prepared to get his degree.
“It was a hope that I would get drafted,” he said. “I had the same hope last year too and then obviously it didn’t work out. But, I think that was for the best because I had a great senior year at Seton Hall and I graduated, which was great. For this year it was still stressful but knowing that I had college and everything behind me took a little bit of the stress off of me. But when it comes down to it, you’re still staring at your computer screen and waiting for someone to call. It’s definitely a nerve wracking and crazy few days to say the least.”
Brad Brach, a pitcher for the Baltimore Orioles and a Freehold native, too, reached out to Ramiz following the draft to offer a few words of encouragement.
“That was kind of cool after being drafted,” he said. “We spoke over text, that was really cool to have a major leaguer reach out and offer me some advice.”
Ramiz is still processing the change from life in New Jersey to life in the pros.
“I still don’t think it really has set in yet with how quickly everything has gone on,” he said. “How quickly they got me out here and playing right away. I think because I’m so busy playing and doing all this stuff, that it really hasn’t set in yet for me.”
Ramiz plans to give it his all while he seeks to continue to move up in Seattle’s organization.
“You have to take it day by day,” he said. “Right now, I’ve been playing, I’ve been getting a good amount of at-bats. The first summer, I want to play and get as many at bats as I can. Whether it’s here or if they move me up, it doesn’t matter, I’m just trying to play and do my best, so that moving forward I can set myself up for some more success.”
