Ivan Acuña

Ivan Acuña

• Bats Right, Throws Left
• Height 5' 10", Weight 220 lb.
• School Winston-Salem State University, Catawba Valley Community College
• High School Hopewell High School

• Born February 18, 1995 in Caracas, Distrito Capital Venezuela

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Ivan Acuña has played in the Venezuelan League and French Division I.

Acuña hit .324/.396/.511 as a college junior and .367/.446/.624 as a senior with 70 runs, 21 doubles, 11 homers, 58 RBI and 14 steals (in 16 tries) in 58 games. He won Central Intercollegiate Athletic Association Player of the Year. He came to France in 2019 and hit .409/.514/.591 with 30 runs and 30 RBI in 31 games for the Savigny Lions. He also threw out 11 of 23 who tried to steal. He finished second in average, 6th in slugging, 2nd in OBP, tied for 7th in hits (45), tied for 5th in RBI, tied for 10th in runs and tied for 7th in total bases. He also worked to send supplies back to impoverished Venezuela, his homeland.

He spent the winter with the Bravos de Margarita, producing at a .216/.341/.216 clip as the backup to Tomas Morales at catcher. He was on France's announced team for the 2020 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers before that event was canceled due to the COVID-19 pandemic, one of the first baseball events canceled due to the pandemic (originally it was listed as postponed). He was back in action with the 2021 Lions, hitting .328/.464/.516 with 19 runs and 18 RBI in 18 games. He was 4th in slugging, 10th in OBP, tied Mohammed Baoui for 7th in runs, was 4th in RBI, tied Andy Paz for 7th in walks (17), tied Joris Bert and Felix Brown for 3rd with two homers and tied for 10th in steals.

Acuña coached for France in the 2021 European Championship. He hit .325/.439/.446 with 22 RBI in 23 games for Savigny in 2022, also pitching six shutout innings and getting a win. He fielded .979 and threw out 19% of those who tried to steal. He was second in RBI (a distant 17 behind Bastien Dagneau), tied Dagneau for the most doubles (10) and tied Alan Fanhoni for 6th in total bases (37). Having coached for France in '21, he played for them in 2022 when he was their starting backstop in the 2022 World Baseball Classic Qualifiers. In their opener, he hit cleanup against Great Britain. He homered off McKenzie Mills to put France up 1-0 in the second, their only lead of the tournament. He drove in Léo Jiminian with France's lone run against the Czech Republic. He finished 3-for-5 with two walks, a double, the homer and three RBI in the two games. He thus led all the qualifiers in OPS (2150; Harry Ford was second at 1952). The next-best French qualifier was Alexander Perdomo at 1000. He also tied Dayle Feldtman for second in average (.043 behind Leonardo Reginatto), was second in OBP (.125 behind Jonathan Araúz) and led in slugging (.036 ahead of Ford).