While shortstop Chris Ramirez and his 44-15 Cal Baptist team barely missed the postseason, the Lancers were able to celebrate with a plethora of postseason awards. A league-best seven Cal Baptist players were named to all-conference teams. But Ramirez, the Lancers’ leader in both batting average (.389) and hits (A Baptist single-season record of 98), took home an abundance of honors to further build momentum for the upcoming summer with the Gatemen.
Ramirez already put the college baseball world on notice in his freshman season; the WAC Defensive Player of the Year award and an All-WAC First Team nod with a .350 batting average in Year One of college ball is bound to generate some hype. But instead of resting on his laurels, the California native got right back to work with an even more impressive sophomore campaign. He increased his on-base percentage by nearly a 30-percent margin and improved on hits and total bases for the year. He retained his Defensive Player of the Year award and tallied another All-WAC First Team appearance, but came through to also collect the conference's biggest honor. After leading the conference in hits and runs scored, Ramirez took home the WAC Player of the Year award as just a sophomore. He becomes the third Lancer ever to win the award but now combines with 2025’s winner and current Detroit Tigers prospect outfield Nick Dumesnil for back-to-back Baptist recipients. But despite the honors, winning was the only goal for Ramirez.
“It was super cool seeing everyone get a piece of the cake. We had a couple first team, second team guys–well deserving. It was super exciting to see everyone win those awards.” Ramirez said. “But at the end of the day, our goal was to make it to the regional and beyond, but that didn't happen.”
The Lancers entered the conference tournament as the 2-seed, but fell out of the winner’s bracket with a close loss to top-seeded Tarleton State. The WAC-champion Texans recently went on to upset 2-seed UC Santa Barbara Gauchos by six runs in the Austin Regional; The winner of the WAC was never going to be a Cinderella story with that level of conference competition.
In the Cape Cod League, Ramirez displayed a similar two-way game to help the Gatemen become one of just two West Division teams to reach the 20-win mark last season. The bat was obviously prevalent with a team-high .380 batting average and a .915 OPS over 17 games, but the real story came on the defensive side. Yes, he came into the summer winning the WAC Defensive Player of the Year award as a freshman, but he adjusted to the skill level and infield pacing of the CCBL almost immediately; Ramirez finished the summer with a .9745 fielding percentage across shortstop and second base, only recording three errors throughout the entire season. Wareham had only one other shortstop on the roster, Kennesaw State’s Shamaar McDuffie, so manager Ryan Smyth had some pressure on the then-rising sophomore to possess the athleticism and glove talent to be an everyday CCBL middle infielder.
“Oh man, the summer was huge for me. It really exposed me to a higher competition of baseball, and that allowed me to really excel. It also, you know, grew my confidence when I got back to Cal Baptist.” Ramirez said. “I had never played with so much confidence in my life, it was a huge summer for me, both physically and I felt like I really matured as a person as well.”
A large part of Ramirez’s success in the CCBL and at Baptist this past year comes from his work with batting coach Mike Mobbs. Mobbs had a successful summer with four former Gatemen positional players selected in the first three rounds of the 2025 MLB Draft. Over the last two summers with Mobbs’ leadership, Wareham’s offense has led the Cape League in four stat categories: OPS, slugging, doubles and triples. This past season the Gatemen tacked on two more with runs scored and home runs; Wareham had 13 hitters with a batting average of .250 or higher.
Thanks to the success in Wareham–both at the plate and with confidence as a ballplayer–Ramirez lobbied for Coach Mobbs to join the Lancers’ staff and fill the open assistant role to coach hitting and third basemen. He was a perfect fit; Cal Baptist tallied its highest team batting average since 2022.
“Every day in the fall it was just poking jabs at each other, having fun. We’d ask him (Mobbs) questions of the day, stuff like that, where it was just fun jokes.” Ramirez said. “It was a really loose group at Cal Baptist, he played a really big part of that.”
Ramirez will reunite with the Wareham community this summer while also spending time with Team USA. Last summer’s All-Star shortstop spot for the West Division came from a rising junior–Ramirez’s status with one year of cod ball under his belt will certainly put him in consideration right from the start. But the 2026 WAC Player of the Year wants to keep things fun while he guards the gate.
“I just want to have fun, play well, and I typically play well when I'm loose and having fun.”
Wareham fans should be excited for some fun in the win column this season with the high-profile addition of Ramirez. The fun starts just 12 days from now, June 13, when the Gatemen visit the Kettleers to begin 2026.
