MOORHEAD, Minn. — Fargo-Moorhead RedHawks infielder Leobaldo Piña and Winnipeg Goldeyes starter Luis Ramirez have earned the American Association’s Rawlings Batter and Pitcher of the Month awards for June, the league announced Friday.
Piña was consistently excellent in June, producing an Association-best .433 batting average while hitting 6 home runs and driving in 23. He finished the month on a 17-game hitting streak, hitting .530 with a .568 on-base percentage and six home runs over that stretch. The streak, still active entering Friday’s games, is the second-longest by an AAPB player this season. Piña was named the American Association’s Batter of the Week two weeks in a row to finish out the month, the first time a player won the award on back-to-back weeks since August of 2008.
Piña is one of the longest-tenured players in the Association, having played with the RedHawks since 2018. The native of Venezuela has hit .300 or better in all but one season with Fargo-Moorhead. In 2021, the former Cardinals prospect hit a career-high 15 home runs and drove in 65 while hitting .311. He owns a .317 career batting average in 400 games in a RedHawks uniform (regular season and playoffs).
Ramirez emerged as one of the top pitchers in the American Association in June, leading the league with 43 strikeouts for the month and posting a 1.93 ERA. The right-hander walked just 10 batters in 37.1 innings of work with an opponents’ batting average of .182. His best outing of the month came on June 12 at Kane County, where he threw eight innings of one-run baseball, allowing just three hits and one walk while striking out nine.
2022 is Ramirez’s first year in the American Association and his first as a starting pitcher. The 29-year-old spent six seasons in affiliated ball in the Diamondbacks and Rockies organizations. His last pro appearance before this season was in 2017 with Double-A Hartford in the Rockies’ system. A native of the Dominican Republic, Ramirez made his pro debut with the Diamondbacks’ Dominican Summer League team in 2012 at the age of 19. He owns a career 2.86 ERA in the affiliated minor leagues over 152 appearances, all in relief.
Rawlings is the official baseball of the American Association.
