Junior third baseman Joe Ruth is the 2022 USA South Baseball Player of the Year as announced by the conference Thursday. Ruth is the third Panther selected as the conference player of the year joining Blake Butcher (2016) and Casey Bell (2017).

Ruth is the first team third baseman on the USA South All-Conference and West Division teams. He is on the all-conference team for the third consecutive season. 

Ruth has been the Panthers' batting leader all season. He leads the USA South in batting average (.442), hits (80), doubles (17), RBIs (69), and total bases (131). Ruth has a .464 on-base percentage and a .724 slugging percentage to go along with 57 runs scored and 10 home runs. In conference games-only, Ruth posted a .425 batting average, a .454 on-base percentage, and a .655 slugging percentage with 31 runs scored, a conference-best 31 RBIs, eight doubles, and four home runs. 

Ruth sets a new school season record with each RBI he has after breaking the old record of 64 earlier. He is the first Panther to have double digits in home runs in a season since 2008. Ruth had a career game of three home runs and eight RBIs against Oglethorpe on April 12. He has struck out just six times in 181 at-bats this season.

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