News

By Salomé Davoudiasl

ARE YOU KIDDING AIDEN RUIZ?! ?? pic.twitter.com/vAlAfKtmx8

— USA Baseball 18U (@USABaseball18U) September 14, 2025

Aiden Ruiz, the 18-year-old shortstop who helped lead Team USA to a gold medal at the WBSC U-18 Baseball World Cup in Taiwan, is finally back home. His family, friends, teammates, and coaches had turned out to honor him at The Stony Brook School’s recreation center, just a few strides across from the baseball diamond where Aiden Ruiz built his reputation. 

A room with ping-pong tables, vending machines, and video games was blessed by trays of fresh food, steaming and still bubbling from the oven. Parents and coaches bustle around, blowing balloons, colors red, white and blue. 

Ruby Moreno, mother of one of Ruiz’s teammates, had prepared most of the spread, and was buzzing from table to table, arranging platters, moving the room’s setup out of the way, making way for the teams and their star.

The air was static as the boys rushed in, jerseys replaced with athleisure, stomachs grumbling, their refinement lost with the end of practice, leaving only the unfiltered, electric energy of a team eager to celebrate, and eat, of course. 

Head of School Joshua Crane wandered through the crowd, exchanging handshakes with family members and friends. Coaches and family moved among the players, offering congratulations, while the buzz of animated conversation reflected the collective pride of the community in one of their own.

Later that evening, Ruiz was called among faculty members to their regularly scheduled meeting, eager to see and hear from him. After everything he had accomplished, the gold medal, the All-World recognition, the national spotlight, this was the first moment that his nerves were visible. 

The Boy From Queens

Surrounded by teachers, administrators, and mentors who had watched him grow up, he felt the weight of expressing endless gratuity to the entire Stony Brook community; those who supported him every step of the way.

Because long before a gold medal or national recognition, there was a boy from Queens, where fields were more dirt than grass, and finding a batting cage often meant an hour’s drive in traffic.

“Queens definitely put a chip on my shoulder,” Ruiz said. “A lot of people think Northeast kids can’t play like the ones down south. But my dad and I put the work in. Every day we’d sit in traffic just to get to a field or batting cage. The fields weren’t great, but if you wanted it, you found a way.” 

That love for the sport runs in the family. His father, Samuel, played minor league ball; his mother, Christina, played college softball. “My family’s always been a baseball family,” Ruiz said. “Ever since I was a kid, the dream was to play in the MLB.” 

Christina remembered the manifestations of his career early. “He would beg us to sleep in his cleats,” she said. “When he was 4 or 5, we could tell he was different. He won his first Golden Glove when he was four. He won another one last summer; it was super full-circle.”

Ruiz’s baseball journey started in the most familiar of places: his family. He played with his cousin on the Brooklyn Cougars. He then joined a nearby Forest Hills team before moving on to Brooklyn Bluestorm, a travel team his father helped organize. 

After Bluestorm came stints with Dream Chasers Baseball, two years with Team Elite, and time with Wow Factor, each step preparing him for the next challenge. By the time he arrived at Stony Brook as a freshman, Ruiz was already shaped not just as a player, but as a teammate. 

Ruiz had tried out for Team U.S.A. twice before. “I would make NTIS (USA Baseball National Team Identification Series), but I would get overlooked because of my size and my height,” Ruiz said. “My skill set was there, but my strength wasn’t.” 

The rejection only kindled his ambition. “God had a different plan, and I just had to wait it out a little bit.” 

Taiwan Was a Dream Come True

When Ruiz arrived at The Stony Brook School as a freshman, he was quickly recognized as a player who could make an impact.

“I met him as a freshman,” senior Julian Martinez recalled. “We were roommates our freshman year. We quickly became brothers; we connected through baseball.”

Head Coach Jonathan Brewer said Ruiz’s impact was immediate. “In my 17 years of coaching, he is the most charismatic kid I’ve met, with an infectious personality,” adding “attention is naturally drawn to him. He will have a big following one day, not just from his skill, but from his personality.”

What stands out to Brewer, beyond skill or prestige, is Ruiz’s sportsmanship. “It’s the small things, from always helping clean up the field to consistently helping the team when things are going wrong. He’s our glue,” Brewer said. “He hasn’t fully grasped what he’s accomplished yet—he can’t. That’s what’s so good about him.”

Joshua Crane, head of school at Stony Brook School, said “Aiden is a live wire . . . he has incredible energy and intensity, in a really good way. He just has another gear that most people don’t have. He really is a special talent.”

For Ruiz, wearing “USA” across his chest in Taiwan was a dream come true, and the experience gave him some of the best advice he’s ever received. He recalls Coach Rick Eckstein’s plea to the players that kept him grounded: When you get to playing on a big stage like that, just remember, you’re not playing the other team. You’re playing the standing where they’ve always wanted to be.

 “It was definitely emotional, thinking about when I was younger dreaming about playing,” said Ruiz. People once thought he would never even play shortstop, so playing that position with the team he’s dreamed of, he said, “was surreal.”

His clearest memory from the championship wasn’t a hit or a defensive play, it was a look. “With two outs in the bottom of the seventh, I looked over at Jacob Lombard, my best friend. He got chills locking eyes with his teammate, realizing all their hard work had led to this moment. When the final out came, the team erupted, throwing their gloves into the air in celebration.

Most people can’t say they’ve been named one of the best in their field before receiving a high-school diploma.  “I processed it as recognition for the work I put in, and the stuff I’ve prayed for to God before,” Ruiz said. “But going forward, it’s just a testimony to my story. There’s more to be done to get to where I want to be: the MLB.”

Back home, the celebration at Stony Brook was as much about Ruiz the ballplayer as it was about Ruiz the adored son, teammate, and friend. 

“He’s the most fun guy, on and off the field,” teammate Joshua Diaz said. Freshman Aidan Brower described him as someone who “uplifts the team.”

Chris Cortes, father of one of Ruiz’s teammates, put it simply: “He’ll pick you up before he brings you down.”

“Brothers for Life”

Ruiz said the best part of being back was reconnecting with those around him. “My teammates, those are my brothers for life,” he said. “They’ve been supporting me when I was with Team USA the whole summer. Just seeing them and being home again with them—I missed them so much throughout the trip.”

Ruiz has already committed to Vanderbilt, with one of the premier baseball programs in the country, and he’s widely considered an early-round pick in the 2026 MLB Draft. Yet, he keeps his focus.

“I try not to block it out, but I’m just playing the game here, in the moment,” he said. “I’m in high school for the year, so I’m going to enjoy high school. If the draft happens, great. If I go to college, great. They’re both really amazing options. I’m just being focused where I’m at and enjoying the people around me.” 

Proudly family-oriented, Ruiz says his father’s influence greatly impacted his choice. It felt right and familiar when he met Tim Corbin, head baseball coach for the Vanderbilt Commodores. “Tim Corbin pushes for the discipline that my dad always taught me, about playing the game the right way, and with humility. When I went to Vanderbilt, it just felt like home.”

As he prepares for his senior season, Ruiz said he wants to savor every moment. “I’m soaking it all up, the bad moments, the good moments. I know there’s gonna be bumps in the road, but just enjoying it, knowing this is my last year with my teammates and coaches and my family.”

And when asked how he’d like to be remembered, Ruiz basically repeated what people had gloated about him at every opportunity. 

He hopes to be seen as “True to myself, but also someone who lights up a room when they walk in. Someone who can have an impact on someone’s life in a great way.”

Salomé Davoudiasl is a reporter with The SBU Media Group, part of Stony Brook University’s School of Communication and Journalism’s Working Newsroom program for students and local media.