Bowling Green School’s Timmy Ruffino

Bowling Green senior Timmy Ruffino is a pitcher/first baseman for Buccaneers’ baseball team.
This is his first year with Bowling Green.
He was at Archbishop Hannan before coming to Bowling Green. With the Hawks, he had all-district honors that included first-team pitcher and first baseman and second-team all-district pitcher.
“We’re happy to have him. He’s come in and led by example, a guy that is going to go play college baseball. Just the mindset that he brings, the work ethic. It’s the things you can’t teach. The character that he brings. That’s big for a program. We’re trying to build a culture here and that’s the kind of guys that if we’re going to add to what we have, that’s the kind of guys we’re looking to add,” Bowling Green coach Justin Garcia said. “We’ve got a couple of new players and we’re excited about them, but it’s more about who they are then what they bring to the table baseball wise even though they’ll help us big time on the field. Off the field, we already see the change in the mentality and we know that’ll bring us farther than any talent will. The combination of those two things, we couldn’t ask for anything more than that.”

What do you enjoy most about playing your sport?
Just competing out there or when I’m on the mound, just competing against other batters and trying to strike them out and thinking ahead in the game kind of like a chess game almost. Kind of just trying to get outs and strikeouts.

What do you like best about being a student athlete?
You’ve got to take care of your books before you do anything. Especially in high school — it teaches you how to be a student athlete when you go off to college, so when I go play college, I’ll be able to know how to prioritize my books over my athletic career.

Who has been the most influential person in your school sports career? Why?
It’s really two people. One is (former LSU and Major League pitcher) Ben McDonald. He played for LSU. I played for his travel team when I was 12. He took me under his wing and kind of showed me the ropes of what it’s like to be a college pitcher and what to kind of think, how to think in the game.
The second one has to be (former Tulane and Major League pitcher) Mike Romano. I started with him when I was seven-years old and kind of grew with him and he showed basically how to pitch from square one.

Who is your favorite athlete? Why?
It’s gotta be (former major league pitcher) Jim Abbott because he had one hand like me and he kind of does the glove switch kind of like me and he played professional, so he’s kind of somebody to look up to and hopefully become one day.

Favorite team?
Gotta be Mississippi State. I fell in love with them when I first watched them play. They’re a bunch of Dawgs up-and-down.

Best thing about living in Washington Parish?
I’ve lived here after Katrina, so about 14, 15 years. Just it being quiet, off to the side kind of. It’s not like a city where everybody’s on top of each other. You can kind of — because I have batting cage in my front yard, so we can set that up and you can hit all night, so it’s not like somebody’s coming over to your house saying, ‘shut up, don’t be hitting this late, I can’t sleep.’