It was refreshing that JFK High School star pitcher Derek Yormack was named Gatorade’s New York baseball player of the year.
“The past year has been amazing,” he told The Post.
The soon-to-be senior was an integral part of the Cougars’ run to claim the Long Island title in the spring.
He boasted an ERA of 0.42 and a .439 batting average — all while keeping straight A’s in school.
“Some teammates come up and ask how to throw a certain pitch or what my approach is in the box,” Yormack said of the synergy he shares with the roster.
“It just drives me. It drives the team. It’s amazing.”
And the 17-year-old is thirsty for more his senior year.
“It’s not finished yet,” he said. “We were state semifinalists, so there’s still more to build on. Every day is just about getting better.”
Yormack plans on suiting up for the Vanderbilt Commodores after graduating — if the MLB draft doesn’t come calling first.
“It would be a dream come true,” the lifelong Mets fan added.
Duck dreams
Hempstead’s Julian Minaya is learning to fly with the Long Island Ducks.
The 24-year-old right-hander is pursuing a dream of landing in a Major League Baseball farm system and feels he’s in the perfect place to make that happen.
“It’s a hitters league. There’s just a lot of great talent here,” Minaya told The Post.
“I’m really learning how to pitch better.”
The Dominican Republic-born ace raised in Nassau County added that former teammate Trevor Bauer, who played on Long Island from April until June, was integral in advising on how to have batters feel the breeze.
“We talked a lot about how to read the hitters and how to sequence … that’s helped me a lot,” Minaya, who is 4-2 with 58 strikeouts in 47 ²/₃ innings, said.
“Just learning how to pitch, learning how to use your strength to your advantage, and how to read the hitters better,” he added.
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