Former Drury baseball pitcher and infielder Ryan Colombo has signed a professional contract with the Hollywood Stars of the independent Pecos League.
Colombo was this year’s Josh Willingham Award winner as the most valuable player in NCAA-II and was the Great Lakes Valley Conference Player of the Year this season. The Topeka, Kansas native went 9-2 with a 2.62 earned run average and set a team record with 106.2 innings pitched. He recorded 78 strikeouts against just 33 walks while Drury won 12 of the 14 games he started on the mound. In the field, Colombo hit .375 with three home runs and 33 runs batted in. He tied for the team lead with 11 doubles. Colombo played nearly every inning of every game and saw action in all 57 of Drury’s games logging time at pitcher, first base, second base, and shortstop.
He helped the Panthers to a 37-20 record, a West Division championship in the Great Lakes Valley Conference as Drury went 19-9 in the league, and the team’s fifth NCAA-II national tournament appearance in the program’s 11-year history.
Colombo is also one of 12 finalists for the Tino Martinez Division II National Player of the Year award and has also been named 1st Team All-GLVC, 1st Team All-Midwest Region by the D2CCA, the NCBWA, and the ABCA/Rawlings.
Colombo is the third Drury player from this season to sign a pro contract. Nic Perkins was drafted in the 28th round by the Washington Nationals last week and Garrett Woods signed to play with the independent Gateway Grizzlies of the Frontier League.
The Pecos League is a professional independent baseball league founded in 2011 and has teams in California, Arizona, New Mexico, Colorado, Texas, and Kansas.
The Hollywood Stars are based in Los Angeles and play in historic Griffith Park, home to the famous Griffith Observatory located in the Santa Monica mountain range.
