A quote from the classic baseball film Bull Durham aptly sums up why David Eichhorn has been both a durable and dominant pitcher for San Francisco State University.

“Don’t try to strike everybody out,” Crash Davis, the veteran minor league catcher played by Kevin Costner, tells up-and-coming pitcher Ebby Calvin “Nuke” LaLoosh, played by Tim Robbins during a mound visit. “Strikeouts are boring. Besides that, they’re fascist. Throw some ground balls — it’s more democratic.”

By the standard of pitching to contact and inducing groundouts early in at-bats, Eichhorn is one of the most democratic hurlers around. It’s made for a highly successful 2025 campaign — one the Aptos High graduate hopes will convince a team to cast a vote of confidence in his abilities by selecting him in this summer’s Major League Baseball draft.

“David has the pedigree, the maturity, and the mindset to pitch at the professional level,” San Francisco State head coach Tony Schifano said. “He should at least get a free agent contract” if he’s not selected in the draft.

After improving to 6-0 on the season on Sunday with a victory over Cal State East Bay that clinched a postseason berth for SFSU, Eichhorn ranked among the top 10 pitchers in NCAA Division II’s California Collegiate Athletic Association in multiple categories.

For starters, the son of former major league reliever Mark Eichhorn boasts a stellar 2.97 ERA in 60 2/3 innings of work — a significant improvement over the 4.42 ERA he posted a year ago. He also ranks third in fewest runs allowed (22) and fourth in wins, opposing batting average (.249), and fewest walks allowed (11).

And while the younger Eichhorn might not actively be trying to rack up strikeouts and doesn’t have a blazing fastball — at least not compared to some Division I hurlers and other prospects who have attracted the attention of major league scouts — the senior right-hander still gets plenty of batters to whiff: His 49 strikeouts rank second on SFSU’s pitching staff.

Eichhorn does it with a fastball that tops out between the high 80s and low 90s in terms of miles per hour, according to Schifano.

“David’s a pitcher’s pitcher,” Gators pitching coach Nick White said. “He’s got four pitches, and they all come from the exact same arm slot. Hitters don’t know what’s coming until it’s a little too late.

“The spin rate on his pitches is one of the best in the conference. What hitters are seeing is not what’s actually happening.”

Eichhorn has accomplished all this while regularly pitching deep into contests. With the exception of just two starts in which he lasted less than four innings, he hasn’t tossed fewer than six frames in any of his 10 outings. That includes Sunday’s triumph over Cal State East Bay, in which he allowed just two runs and five hits, struck out five batters, and walked none in 6 2/3 innings.

Eichhorn lasted eight innings on April 19, striking out a season-high 10 batters, walking one and surrendering one earned run in SFSU’s 4-1 victory over Sonoma State.

None of Eichhorn’s starts, however, was more impressive than his March 8 appearance against Cal State Dominguez Hills. Eichhorn tossed a complete-game shutout in that contest, striking out six hitters and walking none — all on just 97 pitches — in the Gators’ 10-0 triumph over what was then the CCAA’s second-place team.

That effort earned Eichhorn Pitcher of the Week awards from both the CCAA and the and the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association.

“He pitched something I call a ‘Maddux’ — a nine-inning shutout in under 100 pitches,” said White, invoking the name of Baseball Hall of Famer Greg Maddux. “He’s so focused on his preparation. His mechanics are flawless. He takes care of his body. It’s a product of all the work he puts in.”

It was the second complete game Eichhorn had thrown in his two seasons at San Francisco State. The Cabrillo College alum came close to throwing another in last year’s CCAA tournament, lasting 8 2/3 innings in a win over Cal State Monterey Bay, which will host SFSU in both teams’ final regular-season series this weekend.

“The main thing I noticed during that outing (against Dominguez Hills) is that all my pitches were working really well,” Eichhorn said. “It was huge to get hitters guessing really well. I filled the zone with all my pitches and created good deception.

Eichhorn’s success has been an enormous bright spot in a season in which a gloomy pall has hung over San Francisco State’s program: The 2025 season will be the Gators’ last.

SFSU officials announced in March that baseball will be one of three sports cut by the school at the end of the year.

Eichhorn has been there before: He spent his sophomore season at the University of Antelope Valley, which has since shut down all its athletic programs. It’s why he had to transfer to SFSU in the first place.

“It’s 100 percent given everybody fuel to carry us through the season, which it should,” Eichhorn said. “This is going to be the last year, so we want to go out with a bang, try to make a (Division II College) World Series appearance and maybe even win it.

“Hopefully, it wakes up the administration and makes them realize they’re losing one of the best teams in the whole school.”

Playing professional baseball is an Eichhorn family tradition: In addition to his dad, who spent 11 seasons in the big leagues, his older brother Kevin spent seven seasons in the minors. His older brothers Brian and Steven played college baseball as well, and his sister Sarah swam for Azusa Pacific University.

The youngest Eichhorn hopes to keep the family’s pro baseball tradition going. But even if he doesn’t, Schifano believes the hurler has done San Francisco State proud.

“He’s one of my favorite human beings I’ve been blessed to coach,” the Gators’ head coach said.