Last Friday, Former Eastern alum and first baseman Erik Huber joined a prestigious club.

Huber, an Academic All-American and First Team All-Ohio Valley Conference honoree, was drafted into the Major Leagues First-Year Player draft by the MLB.

Huber was selected in the 12th round as pick number 368 for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Huber is the first Eastern player to be picked in the MLB draft since 2004 when Kyle Haines and Chris Uhle were both picked.

Huber said he was just relaxing when he heard the news he was drafted.

“I was sitting downstairs and the Pirates scout called and said we’re going to take you,” Huber said.

Huber said he was pretty excited to be drafted.

“It feels great just to know that all of your life working hard in a sport has paid off,” he said.

He said he’d like to think that he wasn’t too nervous about being drafted or not, but he said it had been a big relief to know he had been chosen.

“It’s like a big weight lifted off of your shoulder so you can stop worrying about it knowing you had been chosen,” Huber said.

His former Eastern teammates are not too surprised that Huber has been drafted.

Alumn and former pitcher Brandon Murphy played with Huber for 2 years and said he knew Huber well from living with him. He found from another former Eastern baseball player, Adam Varrasi who text messaged him with all the details.

“We didn’t know where, but we were expecting him to be drafted,” Murphy said. “He had a great career and we all expected him to go right about where he was drafted at.”

Huber had a career .376 batting average and said himself that he felt he improved during his senior year as a power hitter. Huber had 12 career home runs at EIU.

Recent graduate and former pitcher Chris Vaculik said he was not surprised either by the draft.

“It was pretty much expected,” Vaculik said. “He was heavily scouted. I was just wondering how high he would be drafted.”

Vaculik also agreed that Huber has improved as hitter in his past two seasons.

“He’s really come a long way,” Vaculik said. “He’s been really successful. The power started coming this year.”

Huber is expected to begin his career with the State College Spikes, the Pirates’ Single A Affiliate.

Currently, Huber is training in a mini-camp in Bradington, Fla. He said they will work out until Saturday when they will begin to decide to send players to their next locations.

Huber said he is not too nervous and was given advice by some of the trainers and coaches.

“The advice they gave me was to just have fun,” Huber said. “The first year they don’t coach much, they just let us get out there and play. They draft for your ability so go out and play the way you’ve played your whole life.”