Mike DeRenzo's name didn't come up much at the start of the season.

When the preseason lineups were being penciled in, it seemed likely that the Penn State baseball team would move returning starter John Richmond from shortstop to second to fill the hole vacated by former all-Big Ten second baseman Eric Spadt, while sophomore Willie Melendez would assume duties at short.

But DeRenzo has everyone's attention now. Heading into yesterday's doubleheader at Cornell, the redshirt sophomore from Murraysville was leading the Lions in batting average (.407) and on-base percentage (.492) and had displayed a steady glove, tallying 43 infield assists without an error.

And while Penn State continues to turn its season around after a sluggish start, DeRenzo has staked his claim as the team's everyday second baseman, even though he didn't crack the starting lineup until the Lions' ninth game.

"For him to come out and not even be in the starting lineup at the beginning of the season and perform like this — it's been a surprise," Melendez said. "But at the same time, we knew that he's a great player with great abilities, and he's worked hard on the defensive side to help us become more successful."

DeRenzo said he didn't expect to start coming into the season but did add that it was one of his major goals during the winter.

"Coming into this year he was a bit of an unknown quantity for us," said Penn State assistant baseball coach Jon Ramsey. "We didn't know what he was going to be able to do."

But Ramsey said DeRenzo's success isn't that surprising when you consider his offseason work ethic.

"He's steadily gotten stronger," Ramsey said. "And you can attribute that to his work in the weight room."

When DeRenzo's not hitting the weights or opponents' pitching, he's hitting the books. The computer engineering major is in the university's Schreyer Honors College and can be found studying on the team bus during road trips. Sometimes the travel can be a bit of a hassle, DeRenzo said.

"For my major, a lot of the work I need to do is at the computer labs here," he said. "It's basically baseball and school right now."

Ramsey said he hopes that younger players will notice DeRenzo's work ethic.

"He does a great job academically and on the field," Ramsey said.

Some of that on-the-field work includes aspects that won't show up on the stat sheet. The relationship between a shortstop and a second baseman can make or break a defense, and Melendez said he and DeRenzo have it down to a smooth science.

"Every pitch we communicate with each other, we tell each other where we like the throws," Melendez said. "Mike is perfect in that he's always into the game. He's always the one reminding me to communicate."

It's been at the plate where DeRenzo has made himself most noticed this year, however. He hits sixth in the order, a spot normally reserved for power hitters, not the stereotypical light-hitting second baseman.

DeRenzo, though, like Spadt before him, has shown that one's position on the field doesn't necessarily determine one's prowess at the plate. Although he has just one career home run, which came last Saturday at Michigan, DeRenzo hits the ball hard.

"Mike has offered pop at the plate for us," Ramsey said. "He has only one (homer) but I think he can hit a few more, though that's not his role. His role is to get on base for us."

DeRenzo has performed that role superbly thus far, reaching base nearly fifty percent of the time, but again, that's very much by design.

"In the offseason I focused on my selectivity on pitches," he said. "I wanted to get my walk to strikeout ratio equal and make myself a better contact hitter."

That game plan has made him a tough out this season.

"When he gets two strikes, he battles," Ramsey said. "He's a very tough hitter with two strikes."

Can DeRenzo keep things going? He thinks so. He is well aware of the talent waiting in the wings. Although Richmond struggled in the early part of the season, he is still a career .300 hitter, and freshman infielder Adam Warchal has also shown promise.

"If my play falters I feel I should be taken out," DeRenzo said. "But right now I'm just going out there, hitting it hard every time up and see where the chips fall."

If the chips continue to fall into place, it shouldn't be too long before DeRenzo is a household name.