Baseball's den Dekker Signs Professional Contract
Tuesday, July 27, 2010 | Baseball
Senior outfielder Matt den Dekker (Ft. Lauderdale, Fla.) recently signed a professional baseball contract with the New York Mets. He has been assigned to the St. Lucie Mets of the Class A Florida State League.
Chosen by the Mets in the fifth round with the 152nd selection, den Dekker earned second-team All-South Region, second-team All-SEC and made the league's Defensive Team for the third year in a row.
Regarded as the top defensive outfielder in school history, den Dekker joined Alabama's Jake Smith as the only players chosen to the SEC Defensive Team three-straight campaigns. He was a two-time All-SEC pick, making the second team in 2010 and first team in 2008 and was named to the SEC All-Freshman Team in 2007. den Dekker is the only Gator to make All-Regional teams on three occasions - 2008 Tallahassee Regional, 2009 & 2010 Gainesville Regionals. On Florida's career list, he ranks third in both at bats (844) and games started (220), fourth in runs scored (220) and strikeouts (157), fifth in games played (234), tied for fifth in hits (262) and stolen bases (65), sixth in hit-by-pitches (26), tied for sixth in RBI (159) and sacrifice flies (12), seventh in home runs (33) and eighth in total bases (406). den Dekker turned in a career batting average of .310 and was at .300 in SEC play.
In his final collegiate season, the Gators' starting center fielder hit a team-best .352, with a team-high 65 runs and a career-high 49 RBI. He delivered multiple hits in a team-leading 28 games, had a career-high 13 homers, seven doubles and three triples. den Dekker was 23-for-30 on the basepaths and batted .342 with 28 runs, 21 RBI and 14 thefts in SEC play.
He was named as the CollegeBaseball360.com Primetime Player of the Week for his performance during the sweep of LSU in which he hit a sizzling .615 (8-for-13) and was 5-for-5 with four RBI and four runs in the finale. In Omaha, den Dekker turned in one of the most remarkable catches in baseball history with a sprawling grab to start the fourth inning against UCLA at the NCAA College World Series. With his back to the plate, he sprinted out to the base of the center field wall on a ball hit by the Bruins' Brett Krill and made a sensational basket catch as he was sliding onto the warning track. The feat was ranked #1 on SportsCenter's Top Plays that night.
den Dekker was voted to the All-Tournament Team of the NCAA Gainesville Regional after going 6-for-13 (.462) with four runs, four RBI and three multiple-hit games. He went 2-for-5 and scored twice in the championship game against FAU, led off the fifth inning with a homer and was 2-for-4 with two runs versus Oregon State and raked a two-run triple in the sixth inning in the win over Bethune-Cookman and stole two bases.
The lone Gator chosen to the All-Tourney team of the SEC Tourney, den Dekker led the squad with four RBI and tied for the top spot with three runs. He had a single and came across the plate to keep the Orange and Blue alive against Vanderbilt and walked and scored in the win over Arkansas. He went 2-for-5 and collected three RBI during the Gators' first-round encounter with LSU, when he delivered a two-run double in the fifth and led off the eighth inning with a round-tripper.
den Dekker became the third of the six Gators taken in the 2010 Major League Baseball Draft to sign a professional contract. Left-hander Kevin Chapman (Coral Springs, Fla.), a fourth-round choice of the Kansas City Royals, is playing with the Wilmington (Del.) Blue Rocks of the Class A Carolina League and catcher Hampton Tignor (Sarasota, Fla.), a 36th-round pick of the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, is currently playing for the Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Kernels of the Class A Midwest League.
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