Derek Hendrixson enters his first season on staff at WIU as the pitching coach and recruiting coordinator. He previously spent four years at Wright State in Dayton, Ohio assisting with the pitching staff and working with the catchers.
While at Wright State, the Raiders earned three straight Horizon League regular season championships, three consecutive Horizon League Championship titles, and three trips to the NCAA Tournament. The 2024 season followed with Senior RHP Jake Shirk getting drafted in the 18th round of the MLB draft to the Pirates.
In 2023, Hendrixson guided the pitching staff to top-50 national marks in walks allowed per nine innings (27th, 3.61), shutouts (32nd, 4), and strikeout-to-walk ratio (36th, 2.43). Wright State was just outside the top 50 in WHIP (53rd, 1.42) and ERA (58th, 4.89). WSU also broke a single-season school record with 524 strikeouts over 61 games.
In his second year at Wright State, Hendrixson helped the Raiders break a single-season school record in strikeouts (490) and earned a trip to the NCAA Blacksburg Regional. Four pitchers (Jay Luikart, Jake Shirk, Alex Theis, and Sebastian Gongora) received All-Horizon League honors.  In the spring of 2021, he helped lead the Raiders to a 35-13 record as well as helped lead the pitching staff in earning ninth in the nation in Strikeout-to-Walk ratio, 21st in the nation in fewest walks per nine innings, and 32nd in the nation in pitchers’ strikeouts per nine innings. Hendrixson joined the Wright State Raiders staff as the Director of Player and Program Development in the winter of 2020.
The Centerville High School alum played for Heidelberg University from 2014-2015 before transferring to Wright State to join the Raiders from 2016-2018. While at Heidelberg he was a two-time first-team all OAC, first-team All Midwest, and 2015 ABCA All-American. He holds the ERA record at Heidelberg from the 2015 season, going 7-0 with seven saves, posting a 1.15 ERA in 78.1 innings with 86 strikeouts and only four walks. He was a 2015 Summer Collegiate All-American playing in the Prospect League, as well as breaking the reliever strikeout record for the Waterloo Bucks in the 2016 Northwoods League.
At Wright State, he posted a career 3.03 ERA with 71.1 innings and 76 strikeouts, and has the sixth-most saves in school history with 17 in two seasons. In 2018, he helped the Raiders win a Horizon League Championship and a regional bid as the closer. In both 2017 and 2018, he was selected as second-team All-League. Hendrixson also has experience as a pitching instructor at Beyond the Game Sports Facility in Centerville, Ohio with the late Jeff Kennard.
Hendrixson graduated from Wright State with a Bachelor’s Degree in 2018 with a major in Criminal Justice and a minor in Business. Before joining the staff, he pursued his career in business as a Sales Associate at LexisNexis. He currently lives in Macomb, IL with his wife Alana.
