Righthander Anthony DeRosa, who was 6-1 with a 4.35 earned run average for the Husson College Eagles last season, will be sidelined indefinitely due to a minor head injury suffered in an auto accident Friday.

DeRosa had been the No. 2 man in the starting rotation behind Bob Webber.

“I should be back for the [North Atlantic Conference] playoffs if all goes well,” said DeRosa. “I’d like to get one more start in before the playoffs.”

The playoffs start May 4.

DeRosa said the accident occurred on Broadway in Bangor as he was waiting in traffic to turn into Dunkin’ Donuts.

“I was rear-ended by a white pickup truck,” said DeRosa, who was driving his 1998 Jeep Wrangler with teammate Bryan Biggers in the passenger seat. “He pushed us across the street and down into a ditch next to the Dunkin’ Donuts entrance.”

“It definitely could have been a lot worse. I saw him a second or two before he hit me, so I cut the wheel [to try to avoid the collision]. If I hadn’t been able to turn it just enough or if I had turned it too much, we might have hit a telephone pole or an oncoming car,” said DeRosa.

DeRosa said he has received three sets of stitches and 15 staples on the top of his head.

He said he has experienced headaches and had seven staples removed Tuesday to alleviate some of the pain.

“I’m going in on Friday to get the rest of the stitches and staples removed. Then they’ll decide how long I’ll be out after that,” said DeRosa, who is hoping he’ll be able to start working out casually right away.

Biggers has experienced some muscle spasms, according to DeRosa.

Coach John Winkin and the Eagle players said DeRosa’s loss is a significant one, but they will make do until he returns.

“This taxes us,” said Winkin.

“It means people that were somewhat-starters are going to have to step up and take Anthony’s spot until he can come back and start again,” said tri-captain Webber.

“It’ll definitely take a team effort, not only from the pitchers as a whole, but with the defense coming up big for us so we don’t have to throw as many pitches and can go longer [into games],” said sophomore lefthander Chad Lavway.

The players also feel the Eagles have the pitching depth to compensate.

“I’m very confident in our pitching depth,” said senior second baseman and tri-captain Danny White. “We could start six or seven [pitchers]. It’s just a matter of who they give the ball to.”

The Eagles, like most teams in Maine, have been hampered by the unusually snowy April. They have played only two games since returning from the spring trip to Florida on March 18.

That means they are looking at the prospect of playing a lot of games in a short period of time.

“We have a very, very deep pitching staff and that’s going to prove to help us a lot in the long run. We are going to have a lot of games in a small amount of days and we’re going to be able to capitalize because our pitching staff is so deep,” said Lavway.

White pointed out that their indoor workouts have focused on “getting our pitchers ready, getting their stamina ready, and getting them the throws they need.”

Besides Webber and Lavway, the other starting pitchers will be senior James Gray, juniors Keith Nason and Andrew Patterson, and sophomore Chris Pease.

The bullpen consists of juniors Sam Adolphsen and Jon Tefft, sophomore Gerry Worster, and freshman Chris Morris.

Husson is 3-12 overall but hasn’t played a league game yet.

The Eagles will travel to play a nonconference doubleheader at Saint Joseph’s College in Windham today. Then they will host Thomas for a conference doubleheader at 1 p.m. Friday, the University of Maine-Farmington for a conference twinbill at noon Saturday, and the University of Southern Maine for a nonconference doubleheader at noon Sunday.

The UMF doubleheader had been scheduled for Farmington, but UMF’s field isn’t ready so it has been moved to the FieldTurf surface at Husson’s Winkin Sports Complex. UMF will be the home team.