WINTHROP – It only seems like Dave Ricker can roll out of bed and start hitting.

“It’s something you always have to work on,” Ricker said. “It’s not something you can just do naturally.”

As a .500 hitter his last two years, Winthrop’s senior shortstop just makes it look that easy. Experience and strength training have made him a better hitter, he said, as have hours of hard work in the basement of his home, hitting off the tee or doing soft toss with his father, David.

Ricker has been a mainstay in the Rambler infield the last four years. A Mountain Valley Conference All-Star the last two years, he’s one of the few power bats in a Winthrop lineup that kills you with speed, especially at its spacious home field.

“It’s fun hitting in this lineup, because you know anybody that gets on the basepaths is going to score on any type of base hit,” he said.

Led by Ricker, the Ramblers have been one of the top teams in the MVC the last three years and are expected to rank among the conference elite this season.

A strong showing in what should be a tough league won’t be enough this year, however. The Ramblers have lost to Western C champion St. Dom’s the last two years – 16-10 in the 2006 regional semifinals and 6-1 in last year’s regional championship – and with a strong nucleus returning that also includes southpaw pitcher Forest Dwyer and catcher Jordan Conant, they have their sights set on advancing another round this year.

“If we play well and play as a team, I think we can do it. We’ve played St. Dom’s the last two years and lost both years, but I think both years we definitely could have done it if we’d just stuck together and played our game,” Ricker said.

If they do that, it will be because they follow Ricker’s example, Winthrop coach Marc Fortin said.

“He’s cool, calm and collected,” Fortin said. “He’s usually very relaxed, and I think that that trickles down through the team. And they see him working hard and having success, so those are things that trickle down through the team.”

Ricker’s calm demeanor doesn’t squelch his aggressiveness at the plate, but it does help him keep his perspective in the ultimate sport of situations.

“If it’s early in the game and I get a good fastball on the first pitch, I’m probably going to go after it,” he said. “Later in the game, if there’s a runner on third, and we need that run, I might wait for a pitch that I can go the other way with or get in the air to get him home.”

Last summer, Ricker usually hit near the bottom of the lineup for Monmouth Legion Post 204, so it should come as no surprise that that talented squad didn’t lose a game until the state tournament and became just the fifth team from their zone to win the state title in 76 years.

“I don’t think anyone going into that season expected to go so far so fast,” Ricker said. “We went undefeated, and then we won the states which, going against Portland teams and stuff like that, people don’t expect it. Going to Vermont (for regionals) was awesome, too. It was a good experience.”

The good experiences should continue through this spring, the summer and into the fall, when Ricker enrolls at the University of Southern Maine to study business and play baseball.

“I think going down there, that will get the most out of me for baseball, even if I went D-1 or anything else,” he said. “I think that’s still the best fit for me.”