On April 7, Beacons head coach Brendan Eygabroat said he thought Ryan Walsh was still getting comfortable with college pitching. “He’s someone we know is capable of breaking out,” Eygabroat said.

It took Walsh a while to become acclimated to the elevated level of pitching in college baseball, but now that he has, the freshman shortstop is lighting up the diamond with his bat.

Walsh received Rookie of the Week honors from the Little East for his offensive outburst in the third week of April.

The Newton North High School graduate had his best week ever as a college baseball player, posting a .562 batting average (9-for-16) while slugging a robust .937 thanks to a homerun and three doubles.

The nifty 6-foot, 180-pound righty owned Keene State College last weekend to the tune of six hits in two games with three RBI’s and two runs scored, including the homerun.

“That was a good pitch he hit,” Keene State head coach Ken Howe said, remarking about Walsh’s homerun. “He reached out and put it over the leftfield wall.”

The homerun was Walsh’s second of the season. His 14 RBI’s this season are third behind Casey Rice’s 15 and Eric Salvador’s 18.

“He’s a good young player,” Howe added. “He’s got some good potential to become a very good player in our conference.”

Walsh was able to increase his batting average from .241 to .295 on the season during the hot streak.