Eastern names Dru Sebastian as Interim Head Baseball Coach

Eastern Oklahoma State College has named Dru Sebastian its interim head coach for baseball.

"I would like to thank Dr. Wansick and Athletic Director Al Davis for the opportunity to lead this storied baseball program," Sebastian said. "I have thoroughly enjoyed the last year getting to develop our student-athletes on and off the field and be a part of the Mountaineer family. I am excited to hit the ground running to continue to build upon previous success and grow a reputation of excellence within the program. I am delighted to continue working with Coach [Bryan] Hodge as he continues the successful development of our offense and strength program. We are honored to get to lead the program together through hard work and integrity. I'm grateful to be at a school with immense athletic support throughout every department on campus and the entire local community has welcomed us with open arms." 

A native of Fort Wayne, Ind., Sebastian joined the Mountaineers as the pitching coach in 2022. During his first season, the Mountaineers advanced to the Region 2 Championship Finals and had three pitchers named to All-Region teams.

"We are happy to have Coach Dru take over as our new leader for the baseball program here at Eastern," said Al Davis, Eastern athletic director. "I watched his hard work throughout last season with our student-athletes and I know he will do a great job moving forward. He has plenty of experience at the junior college level to keep Eastern as one of the best programs in Region 2 and in the country."

Sebastian spent the previous three seasons at New Mexico Military Institute in Roswell, NM. NMMI had the winningest three seasons in program history during this time along with the second-most wins in program history in 2022. The pitching staff finished top 3 in program history in almost every statistical category while breaking the school record in K/inning. Jorge Garcia finished as a first-team all-conference pitcher while finishing 2nd overall in ERA for NJCAA Region 5. Garcia finished his career as the all-time winningest pitcher in program history. Albert Oliva was selected by the Detroit Tigers out of NMMI as the second player in program history to be drafted directly out of NMMI.

Prior to NMMI, Sebastian spent one season at Dawson Community College and mentored all-region pitcher Austin Robertson and helped lead the program to a regional appearance for the first time in several years. During the summer of 2019, Sebastian coached for the Vauxhall Spurs of the Montana/Alberta American Legion baseball league. The Spurs won the state championship for the first time in more than a decade and Sebastian was tabbed as the Montana/Alberta American Legion Class A State Coach of the Year in his one year with the program. Sebastian's first year as a collegiate coach was spent at Ivy Tech Community College. He helped build the start-up program with a 25-win season – its first season that included a road win over the No. 2 ranked team in the country.

Sebastian earned his associate's degree as a player at Owens Community College in Perrysburg, Ohio, before going on to Purdue University-Fort Wayne to earn a bachelor's degree as a member of the winningest team in program history.