Thursday, June 7, 2007 1:12 AM CDT
Derbak named Freshman All-American
By JG/T-C Staff
sports@jg-tc.com
TUCSON, Ariz. – After serving as Eastern Illinois baseball’s top multi-position player and being the only freshman selected to either of the Ohio Valley all-conference teams, Richie Derbak has been named a Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American by Collegiate Baseball.
Derbak was one of three players selected nationally as a multiple-position athlete. He started 43 times as a position player – seeing action at first base (19), second base (15) and designated hitter (9) – and also pitched in relief in a team-high 21 contests this past spring.
The Lebanon native was at his best in conference play, collecting eight of his 10 doubles and 12 of his 24 RBIs. He was also one of the team’s top situational hitters, batting .365 with runners in scoring position and recording seven of his 12 OVC RBIs with two outs.
On the mound, Derbak recorded a team-high five saves, ranking third in the OVC, and posted all three of his victories in true road games. He struck out 26 in 33 innings.
“Going into the winter months, Richie wasn’t projected as a starter or one of our top relievers. So it’s a good story because he kept working and got more comfortable,” EIU coach Jim Schmitz said. “We began to notice him during the indoor workouts and as the poor weather dragged on, we could tell there was just something about him. Nothing seems to rattle him and we learned we could play him wherever. We’re lucky to have a guy that you can do so much with because the roster and lineup changes from year-to-year.”
Derbak, who played primarily shortstop in high school, began his collegiate career strong, hitting safely in eight straight games early in the year. He went on to post a nine-game streak in OVC play and finished the month of April batting .367 while striking out just three times in 57 plate appearances.
The week of March 26-April 1 was a particularly memorable stretch for the first-year Panther. Wednesday in the comeback win at Indiana State, he knocked in a season-high three runs at the plate and closed out the game on the mound thanks to a 1-6-3 double play with the potential tying run standing on third base.
Three days later in the doubleheader sweep at Tennessee-Martin, he was the winning pitcher in game one, and in the nightcap delivered a clutch two-out, two-run single and closed out the game for another save.
Derbak finished the year with a .303 batting average and eight sacrifice hits (four sac flies and four sac bunts). Despite not attempting a stolen base, he only grounded into one double play. Defensively, meanwhile, he was part of 23 of the 45 twin killings that EIU turned.
Ryan Campbell in 2004 was the last Panther to earn Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American honors from Collegiate Baseball, whose home on the Internet is www.baseballnews.com. Southeast Missouri’s Jim Klocke, the league’s Freshman of the Year, and Nick Harris were the other two Freshman All-American selections from the OVC.
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