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Mon, Jan 18, 2010 - [ Great South League ] - Viewed 294 times
After becoming the first baseball player in Georgia State history to earn a pair of all-conference first team honors, 2009 graduate Derek Simmons has signed a professional contract to play with the Gateway Grizzlies of the Frontier League beginning this spring.

Simmons played a key role in leading the Panthers to their first CAA Championship and NCAA Atlanta Regional appearance in 2009. He becomes the fourth member of the class of 2009 to sign a contract to play professional baseball.

In his two-year career, Simmons batted .344, tied for the fifth best batting average in school history. During his junior year, he batted .379 to earn All-CAA First Team honors as a designated hitter.

In his senior year, Simmons belted 13 home runs, ninth most in a single season, while scoring 60 runs, the third most in one year in Georgia State history. He was honored with All-CAA First Team honors for the second year in a row and sparked the Panthers in the CAA Tournament.

Returning to Wilmington for the first time in two years, Simmons came to the plate with the scored tied in the bottom of the ninth in opening round of the championship and knocked in Michael McCree with the winning run. It began a run of four straight wins as the Panthers took home their first title.
 
Simmons batted .362 for the Athens Pirates last summer finishing in the League Top 15 hitters.  Simmons drove in 14 RBI and tied for the lead in HR with 6.

The Grizzlies are based out of Sauget, Illinois and will begin playing games on May 21st at GCS Ballpark. The Frontier League was founded in 1992 as an independent professional baseball league to serve an area of the country that would otherwise never have a chance to have an affiliated professional team in their community.