FROM STAFF REPORTS

Former Pelham High School baseball standout Brandon Ricco, a senior at Birmingham-Southern College, has been named a Preseason All-American by Baseball America, the magazine announced recently.

Ricco led the team and was second in the Southern Collegiate Athletic Conference as a junior in 2010 with a .473 batting average last season. The second baseman also posted a conference-high 79 hits, as well as a .707 slugging percentage, .511 on-base percentage and 56 RBIs.

On the defensive end, Ricco posted a .976 fielding percentage and committed just four errors in all 39 of the Panthers’ games.

Ricco also received the South Region Gold Glove from Rawlings and the ABCA and was an All-South Region and All-SCAC selection. Ricco was also recently named to the D3baseball.com Preseason All-American team.

Ricco is teammates with former Kingwood Christian School pitcher Brooks Webb at Birmingham-Southern College. The duo is part of a squad that begins the season ranked No. 9 in the Collegiate Baseball Newspaper NCAA Division III poll.

The Panthers, who are coming off back-to-back SCAC Eastern Division championships, opened the 2011 season with wins over Schreiner University and Trinity University in a doubleheader Feb. 5.