A New Britain High School senior, Danniel Rivera, has signed a scholarship package to play college baseball.
The New Britain school district announced that the three-year NBHS starting shortstop will play for Southern New Hampshire University.
“All my hard work has paid off and my family deserves this,” Rivera said. “I owe my success to them and my coaches.”
“Coach Mercado has helped me and my teammates understand how important it is to be a student-athlete and that school always comes first,” said Rivera. “He is always pushing us to do our best both in the classroom and on the field.”
Rivera added, “During the college visitation and recruiting process, this perspective helped me a lot as I finalized my decision.”
As a senior, Rivera had a .412 batting average, with 15 RBIs and 24 runs. He had three home runs.
Rivera was named NBHS’s most valuable player this past season, the “Golden Spikes Award”. He received the “Golden Bat Award” in 2016 and 2017 for being the team’s best batter. He was an All-Conference player in 2017 and 2018.
In 2017, Rivera was one of two players joining New Britain Head Coach Roberto Mercado in representing the United States in the Goodwill Series in Australia and New Zealand.
“It’s always great to see players from our program move on to higher education,” said Mercado, “which has become a normal occurrence.
“It’s extremely rewarding when we have a player receive a scholarship and is able to display their talents on the baseball field and in the classroom,” Mercado added. “I know Danniel will continue to do that at SNHU. We are all extremely proud of him and I know he will represent our program, the NBHS Hurricane Way, and New Britain in a positive way moving forward.”
“This scholarship means so much to me because not only will I have the opportunity to play collegiate baseball,” said Rivera, “but also because it will help my parents financially.”
