College Baseball Daily continues our countdown to the start of the 2011 College Baseball season by checking in on the Top 100 Players in the country. We will be providing one player per day until we reach number 1.
We continue the countdown today at number 65 with USC junior infielder Ricky Oropesa. He was a four-year varsity letterwinner at Etiwanda High in Rancho Cucamonga, California. As a senior, he batted .563 (36-for-64) with six home runs, six doubles, two triples and 16 RBI. He was an Aflac High School All-American and rated as the No. 108 high school player in the nation by Baseball America. Perfect Game rated him as the No. 2 third baseman in the nation and No. 18 for first basemen heading into the 2008 MLB Draft. The Boston Red Sox ended up drafting him in the 24th round of the draft but were not able to come to terms with him.
Oropesa decided to continue his baseball career at Southern California. He made an immediate impact on the Trojans lineup as a freshman in 2009 as he appeared in 54 games while starting 51. He finished the season with a .314 (58-for-185) while leading the team in home runs with 13 and RBI with 48. He was named Collegiate Baseball/Louisville Slugger Freshman All-America and Pac-10 Conference honorable mention honors.
As a sophomore in 2010, he led the Trojans in all three triple crown categories with a .353 batting average while hitting 20 homers and 67 RBI. He was named first team All-Pac 10 while being named second team All-American by Baseball America. He spent the summer of 2010 in the Cape Cod Baseball League with the Chatham Anglers. He appeared in 44 games hitting .222 with seven homers and 19 RBI. His biggest issue this summer was his high strikeout total as he had 52 in 153 official at-bats. Baseball America named him the 27th best prospect in the Cape Cod League (LINK) while Frankie Pilere of Fanhouse.com named him the 49th best prospect in the 2011 MLB Draft. (LINK)
You can check out the rest of our Top 100 by clicking here.
