"He's a vacuum cleaner down there--the best," says hurler Rob Alevizos, who adds to the chorus of compliments by chiming in "Rick is a super guy."
Despite his teammates' admiration and his current hot bat, Pearce does not delude himself into thinking he can follow in Belanger's footsteps and play major league baseball.
"I would never put myself in the position of counting on being drafted," Pearce said. "If it comes, we'll see, but it would be a great surprise if it did."
B-ball
Instead, Pearce will work for a Boston consulting firm for two years before entering Business School the following fall. His choices have been narrowed to two: Harvard and Stanford.
"I've never been west of Wisconsin," Pearce chuckles, "so maybe I'll try it out there."
For "Ricky College," like Archie Andrews, life is a series of choices. But whereas Archie is limited to Betty and Veronica, Pearce's skills and attitude give him a background to be just about anything he wants: be it an engineer, a coin-collector or maybe even the "new Mark Belanger."