PITMAN, N.J. — For the first time since 2008, the New Jersey City University baseball team has landed a player on the New Jersey Athletic Conference (NJAC) First Team. The NJAC released its 2022 All-Conference baseball teams today, Wednesday, May 4, and the Gothic Knights had two individuals recognized, led by senior centerfielder Ricky Voss (Eatontown, N.J./Monmouth Regional) on the First Team. He was joined by Honorable Mention selection junior rightfielder/pitcher Josh Hernandez (Lake Worth, Fla./Park Vista Community).

For Voss, surprisingly, this is the first All-NJAC selection of his career, which has been all sorts of wonky due to the COVID pause and abbreviated seasons — he will be returning for his fifth season in 2023. The Jersey Shore native has had an outstanding season for the Gothic Knights. Last year, Voss was selected as a 2021 CoSIDA First Team Academic All-District honoree and was also an Honorable Mention Academic All-NJAC recipient. This season, he was a one-time NJAC Player of the Week and was also selected to the d3baseball.com National Team of the Week once. For his career, he surpassed the 100 hit mark and now has 131, has 86 runs scored and 86 RBI, as well as 17 home runs.

This season, Voss finished first on the Gothic Knights in nearly every single offensive statistical category, including batting (.418), OPS (1.256), runs scored (46), hits (61), doubles (14), home runs (9), RBI (45), total bases (108), slugging (.740), walks (tied for first, 24) and on-base percentage (.516). He also ranks in the top 10 in nine different categories within the NJAC at season's end: second in slugging, on-base and OPS, third in batting, tied for third in home runs, tied for fourth in runs, sixth in hits, seventh in RBI and tied for seventh in doubles.

As for Hernandez, after crushing it for parts of two seasons at the NJCAA level with Middlesex County College, he has continued to be an impact player at the Division III level for the Gothic Knights this season. A one-time NJAC Player of the Week, the junior has been an efficient slugger and came on late in the season as a dominant force on the mound out of the bullpen. With the bat, he finished the year hitting .299 with a .917 OPS, was tied for first with Voss in walks (24), second on the team in runs scored (45) and home runs (5), third in hits (43), fourth in RBI (29) and tied for fourth in doubles (10), all primarily as the leadoff hitter. On the mound, he led Jersey City with an eye-popping 0.64 ERA over eight appearances with 14.0 innings pitched, striking out 11 batters and notching three saves, which tied for seventh in the NJAC.