Issue date: 8/25/09 Section: Sports

Senior pitcher and designated hitter Richie Derbak slides into second base during a game on April 4, 2009, at Coaches Stadium. Derbak was one of 12 members of the 2008 team to compete in a collegiate summer league. (Audrey Sawyer/The Daily Eastern News)

The college baseball season ended in the spring when the Eastern baseball team was eliminated from the Ohio Valley Conference Tournament in Paducah, Ky.

However, that did not mean baseball season was over for a number of players, as 12 members of the 2008 OVC regular season champion Panthers squad competed in various summer baseball leagues, leagues where prospects from across the country go to compete against one another during the college off-season.

Players traveled to as nearby as the Chicago suburbs and as far away as Massachusetts and Texas to compete in leagues full of college players trying to fine-tune their skills on a different level.

Three key members of the 2008 squad actually found themselves on the same team with sophomores Zach Borenstein and Gerik Wallsten, and junior Mike Recchia all competing in the Chicago Suburban League's Lombard Orioles.

Wallsten, however, was unable to compete for the Orioles because of a fracture he sustained late in the college regular season.

He said he was all set to play for the Orioles when it was discovered he would need surgery.

With Borenstein and Recchia aboard, the Orioles were able to qualify for the American Amateur Baseball Congress Stan Musial World Series in Huntsville, Texas.

Eastern head coach Jim Schmitz said when his players succeed in the summer leagues, it gives him pride to know they are helping the Panther baseball program.

"What we're trying to do is to become someone in the Midwest that people can talk about," Schmitz said. "Hopefully we'll be going to more regionals and making this a more successful baseball program and these guys have helped."

Schmitz said he has already fielded calls from Major League scouts about Recchia and junior pitcher Josh Mueller thanks to their performances last season and in the summer leagues. Mueller was a member of the Wareham Gatemen in the East Coast's Cape Cod League, which has been around for 114 years and was the subject of the 2002 book "The Last Best League."

Mueller started six games for the Gatemen and went 2-0 with a 3.34 ERA. He struck out 31 in 32.1 innings pitched.

Schmitz said the most important thing about playing in summer leagues for his players is getting them prepared for playing against the competition they will see next season.

"When these guys have to play in programs with and against other players from college it gives them a lot of confidence," he said. "It's definitely a big thing we pushed for and the result is we've gotten better."

Collin Whitchurch can be reached at 581-7944 or cfwhitchurch@eiu.edu.

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