« Baseball 2016

Joseph Runco

School
Fordham
Position
Infield
Major
Business Administration/Management

Classroom

Joseph Runco is scheduled to graduate in May with a degree in business administration with a concentration in management, holding a 3.627 GPA. He also is on pace to finish his pre-dental requirements for dental school. He was a 2015 first-team Capital One/CoSida Academic All-District selection and earned Atlantic 10 All-Academic Team honors for the second straight year. He also is a three-year member of the Atlantic 10 Commissioner’s Honor Roll and a four-year honoree at Fordham’s Breakfast for Champions, which salutes all athletes with a 3.0 GPA or higher.

Runco has made the dean’s list after the following semesters: Fall 2013, Spring 2014, Fall 2014 and Spring 2015. He is on pace to make it again his senior year.

Character

Runco is a four-year starter at second base for the Rams and has tremendous character in tough situations on the diamond. He always seems to keep the team ready for the next play and does all of the right things on and off the field. He is a guy who can be counted on to do the right thing.

“Runco is honest, dependable, committed and hard-working. You can’t say enough great things about his make-up and character. He is an easy guy to nominate/recommend for this award, a job or just about anything.” - Kevin Leighton, Fordham Head Coach

In addition to his leadership on the field, he is a part of Fordham’s Leadership Academy for Student-Athletes and is one of the students on this year’s Block F Dinner committee, giving the student’s take on Fordham’s annual award dinner for Athletics.

Community

Runco has been a large part of the Rams’ efforts to raise money for childhood cancer with the Vs. Cancer foundation. Still working toward their overall goal, Runco and the team have raised $17,000, over the past two years, for the Vs. Cancer Foundation game, which will take place next week. Runco also has also been involved in Team Impact, through which the team adopts a child facing a life-threatening disease. That child, Jonathan, has been a “member” of the team, and the Rams try to improve his quality of life through involvement with the team.

Runco has been a part of Fordham Baseball’s efforts to raise money for the Wounded Warrior Project through the team’s Wounded Warrior Weekend. He has also worked at Coach Leighton’s baseball camps, teaching young kids during the summer.

Competition

After being named to the Atlantic 10 All-Rookie Team as a freshman, Runco earned second-team All-Atlantic 10 honors as a sophomore after leading the league in stolen bases. He started every game for Fordham into his junior season when an April injury kept him out of the lineup for several games. Despite the injury, he finished the year at 160 career starts and still managed to tie for the Atlantic 10 lead in stolen bases with 32 and lead Fordham in runs scored with 38.

Entering his senior season, Runco had 71 career stolen bases, which was sixth all-time at Fordham. He is on pace to become only the second Ram to reach 100 career stolen bases. On March 26th, Runco became the 14th player in the 157 years of Fordham baseball to reach 200 career hits, and is now just the third Ram ever to have 200 career hits and 80 career stolen bases.