Soon, Mike DeRenzo will have exhausted Joe Hindelang's thesaurus.

When asked to describe his senior second baseman and a tri-captain for the 2003 Penn State baseball team, the Penn State baseball coach quickly runs out of adjectives.

"He just brings so much," Hindelang said. "He has been the glue of the defense at second base for the last two years."

While holding his team together, DeRenzo, who will make his 101st consecutive start Saturday at Virginia, has quietly accepted several prestigious awards for his performance on and off the field. For the last two years, the Murrysville native has garnered third-team All-Big Ten honors at second base while becoming the Nittany Lions' first two-time selection to Verizon's Academic All-America first team.

DeRenzo, who is slated to graduate in May with both a bachelor's and a master's degree in Computer Engineering, says that graduate-level coursework and baseball mesh well together, as long as he keeps track of the clock.

"I've learned all kinds of time management skills," DeRenzo said. "It's just hard work and getting things done to the best of my ability. If you put full effort into everything, you'll have no regrets."

Hindelang said his pupil's willingness to completely immerse himself in a task is what originally caught his eye. Upon arriving at the University Park campus as a freshman in 1999, Hindelang said the second baseman approached him and said he would be through in four years -- red-shirting was not an option. After seeing limited action, DeRenzo realized that the players in front of him were too talented to warrant his exhausting another season on the bench, and he decided to take the year and develop as a player.

Working with assistant coach Dave Jameson, who as a teacher at Park Forest was unable to accompany the Lions on road trips that began on Friday, DeRenzo worked diligently to improve his baseball skills. After a winter of work, Hindelang said the sophomore showed great promise.

"I told him over the winter to get lower on ground balls, now he's the lowest," Hindelang said. "I told him to get quicker on the double plays, now he's the quickest. He knows what you can get out of life with hard work."

DeRenzo, however, is content to just keep making the routine plays and working with the bat. Rather than going for the big hit, DeRenzo, who hit for a .355 batting average last season and led the team with 52 runs scored, says he just wants to get on base and help his team score runs. He'll have ample opportunity to do that hitting from the third spot in the lineup.

"I just try to do my job depending on the situation," DeRenzo said. "When I'm on base, more things can happen."

While DeRenzo has solidified the number four position in the field, his double-play partner is still in limbo. While it appears senior Willie Melendez has won the shortstop job coming into the season, sophomore Mike Milliron will challenge to take over the position that he held for more than 40 games last year.

Both of them had nothing but praise for their infield partner. For his part, DeRenzo played the diplomat.

"Mike and Willie both split time at shortstop last year, and they have pretty similar styles of play," DeRenzo said. "I don't think it'll be too much of an adjustment."

For the senior, who came to Penn State following in the footsteps of his brother and without a scholarship offer, this season could be special -- although, they'll probably have to find some new words to describe it.