Joe Brooks has accomplished more in his two years at Rutgers-Camden than most players do in their four-year careers. As Brooks continues climbing up the program’s career charts in numerous categories, he already has captured numerous honors, led his club to the only two regular-season New Jersey Athletic Conference baseball titles in school history, and helped Rutgers-Camden reach the NCAA Division III Baseball Championship Tournament for the first time ever. He has earned all-conference honors both athletically and academically, set several program standards and conducted a two-year hitting clinic on the collegiate level.
Brooks’ stellar 62-hit sophomore season made him the only player in program history to collect
two 60-hit seasons in his career, following his 67-hit freshman year in 2014.
Brooks, who will serve as a team captain for the third consecutive season this spring, enters his junior season as Rutgers-Camden’s all-time leader in batting average (.393) for all players with a minimum of 200 at bats. He currently ranks second in career on-base percentage (.490), is tied for sixth in sacrifices (12), tied for 12th in hits (129), ranks 13th in runs scored (78) and is tied for 13th in walks (48). He also ranks among the program’s career leaders with 154 total bases (16th) and 58 RBIs (tied for 20th), while starting all 88 of Rutgers-Camden’s games over his two-year career.
A stellar student as well, Brooks was a member of Rutgers-Camden’s inaugural Athletic Director’s Honor Roll during the Fall 2015 semester. He was one of only five athletes on that team to post a perfect 4.0 grade point average.
Baseball 2015: Started all 44 Rutgers-Camden games, batting third in the order in every contest…The 44 games played tied a program record that he also tied in 2014…Opened the season starting 14 games at second base before making the switch to be the team’s starting left fielder…Led the club with a .367 batting average, 62 hits, 34 RBIs, 169 at bats and a .457 on-base percentage…His 62 hits tied for the fourth-best single-season mark in program history and his 169 at bats were the fifth-highest season total…Tied for the team lead with two home runs, 24 walks and 77 total bases…His 24 walks tied for the 11th-highest single-season mark in program history, while his 34 RBIs and 77 total bases both tied for the 14th-best season total…Finished second on the team in slugging (.456) and tied for second in sacrifices (4) and stolen bases (12)…Added five doubles and two triples…
D3baseball.com Pre-Season All-America First Team selection…NJAC Second Team and NJAC Academic Honorable Mention…NCAA Division III Mid-Atlantic All-Region Third Team…NJCBA Division II/III First Team All-Star…Named NJAC Player of the Week May 4 after hitting .435 (10-for-23) with two doubles, a home run, three walks, seven RBIs and two runs scored in six games…Captured honors as Rutgers-Camden’s Raptor of the Week May 11 after hitting .733 (11-for-15) with seven runs and four RBIs in four games…Led the Scarlet Raptors with 22 multiple-hit games, including a 5-for-5 performance with three runs against York (PA) College on May 9, one hit shy of the program’s single-game record…Tied for the club lead with seven multiple-RBI games, including a five-RBI game against Eastern University (April 27) when he went 2-for-4, including a second-inning grand slam…Had a seven-game hitting streak (11-for-32, .344), tied for the second longest on the team in 2015, from April 21-28…Also had a six-game hitting streak March 20-30 (8-for-16, .500) and five-game streaks from April 10-14 (7-for-21, .333) and May 2-7 (12-for-20, .600)…Ranked among the NJAC leaders in many categories, including tied for first in two-out RBIs (17), second in both batting average with runners on base (.455) and in percentage for advancing runners (.640), third in total plate appearances (201), tied for fourth in at bats and fifth in batting average with RBI opportunities (.441)…Was tied for fifth in the NJAC in walks, sixth in hits, tied for seventh in RBIs, eighth in batting average against righties (.377), tied for eighth in total bases and ninth in on-base percentage…Finished 11th in the conference in batting average, tied for 11th in two-out batting average (.364), tied for 12th in home runs, tied for 13th in triples, tied for 17th in stolen bases, tied for 19th in sacrifices, tied for 21st in runs scored (29), placed 22nd in slugging percentage, tied for 25th in batting average against lefties (.333), tied for 32nd in HBP (4) and finished 39th in assists (34)…During the Scarlet Raptors’ season-opening Florida trip, hit .370 (10-for-27) in 10 games, including eight against teams nationally ranked or receiving votes toward the national polls…Playing only his 10th game in left field, made a game-saving catch with two outs in the ninth inning to preserve a 3-2 victory over Baruch College (April 14)…Had consecutive multiple-hit games, including a three-game stretch April 4-6, on eight occasions…Went 3-for-4 against SUNY-Cortland (March 16), the team that eventually won the 2015 Division III national title…Also had three-hit games against Ramapo College (May 2), Stevens Institute of Technology (May 4) and York (PA) College (May 7)…Compiled 17 two-hit games, including a 2-for-4 game with four RBIs against Rutgers-Newark (April 4, Game One)…Collected three RBIs on three occasions, coming against Johns Hopkins (March 25, 2-for-4, two runs), Montclair State (April 23, 2-for-5, two runs) and York (May 7, 3-for-5, one run)…Worked three walks and scored three runs against Salisbury University (May 8), and also had two walks in a game on three occasions…Notched a season-high six assists and added one putout against William Paterson (March 29, Game Two)…Had four putouts on four occasions.
Baseball 2014: Started all 44 games at Rutgers-Camden, tying for a new program record…Hit .421 with a .523 on-base percentage, the fifth-highest season marks in program history…His 67 hits were the third-highest mark ever at Rutgers-Camden, only three shy of Matt Hunt’s 2010 record…Scored 49 runs, the second-highest single-season mark in program history and only two shy of Brian Murphy’s mark set in 2002…Had eight sacrifices, one shy of Josh Kastrava’s 1998 program mark…
D3baseball.com All-America Second Team…ABCA Mid-Atlantic Region Second Team…
D3baseball.com Mid-Atlantic Region First Team…
D3baseball.com Mid-Atlantic Rookie of the Year…ECAC Metro Rookie of the Year…ECAC Metro First Team…NJCBA Div. II/III Rookie Player of the Year…NJCBA Div. II/III All-Rookie Team…NJCBA Div. II/III First Team All-State…Five-time NJAC Rookie of the Week (March 24, April 7, 14 and 21, and May 5) on the way to earning honors as the NJAC Rookie of the Year…Named to the NJAC First Team as a designated hitter…NJCBA Div. II/III Rookie of the Week (March 24)…Rutgers-Camden’s Raptor of the Week on May 5…Led conference in batting (.421), on-base percentage (.523) and the percentage advancing runners (.664)…Second in the NJAC in runs (49) and hits (67), and third in batting average in RBI opportunities (.450) and sacrifices (eight)…Fourth in the NJAC in batting average with runners (.430) and tied for fourth in both HBP (11) and walks (24)…Eighth in the conference in slugging percentage (.484) and plate appearances (203), ninth in total bases (77) and 15th in at bats (159)…Finished 20th in the NJAC in RBIs (24), 24th in doubles (eight) and 27th in stolen bases (seven)…Tied for first on the Scarlet Raptors with 18 multiple-hit games, including a 4-for-5 game with one RBI in the opener of a doubleheader against The College of New Jersey (April 19)…Went 3-for-3 in back-to-back games against Trinity (March 22) and Penn State-Brandywine (March 27), and also went 3-for-3 against Kean University (March 31)…Also had three-hit games against Rowan (April 10), York (April 13), Penn State-Brandywine (April 22), Rutgers-Newark (April 25), Montclair State (May 1), Kean (May 3) and Castleton State (May 15)…In the NCAA tournament game against Castleton State on May 15, he had seven at bats, tying for the fourth-highest single-game total in program history…Went hitless in only six of his 44 games all season and had hitting streaks of 11 games (March 16-27, 18-for-34, .529), nine games (April 13-25, 19-for-37, .514) and eight games (March 31-April 10, 15-for-31, .484)…Had five games with multiple RBIs, including three against Penn State-Brandywine (April 22)…Scored multiple runs in 14 games, with a high of four runs in the Castleton State game (May 15)…Went 1-for-3 in his first collegiate game against Neumann University (March 11), notching a two-run single in the fifth inning for his first hit, which put Rutgers-Camden ahead to stay in a 6-2 victory….Served as one of the team’s four captains…Sparked Scarlet Raptors to their first NJAC regular-season title and first NCAA tournament berth in program history.
Pre-Rutgers: Started his collegiate career at East Carolina University, where he was a freshman red-shirt…Named to the ECU Director of Athletics Honor Roll for the 2012 fall semester.
High School: Three-year baseball letterman at Gloucester Catholic High School, where he played for his current Rutgers-Camden head coach, Dennis Barth…Captured All-Conference honors from 2010-2012…All-South Jersey in 2011…Pop McKenna Tournament MVP…Tied the South Jersey single-season record with eight triples, the most since 1997…Named pre-season All-State heading into his senior season by ESPNHS…Second Team All-Northeast Region…Named to top 10 position players in New Jersey by ESPNHS in 2012…Led team to three state championships…ESPN HS All-Mid-Atlantic Region.
Personal: Born December 4, 1993….Nicknamed “Brooksy”…Two-time MVP of the New Jersey American Legion Tournament (2010 and 2012)…Enjoys watching “Big Brother” and spending time with family…Member of the Rutgers-Camden Student-Athlete Advisory Committee (SAAC)…History Education major at Rutgers-Camden who plans to become a high school history teacher, attend graduate school and eventually become a principal…Joe is the son of Joe and Chrissy Brooks of Blackwood.
