Diaz’s Walkoff Single Lifts University Past Gibbons

District 4A-13 featured nothing but thrilling match-ups last season, and if Tuesday’s clash between Cardinal Gibbons and University School is any indication, then things have picked up right where they left off.

On a night when four pitchers — two from each team — put on a dazzling performance, the game came down to a big hit.

University of Miami signee Sebastian Diaz smacked a walkoff single in the bottom of the seventh to lift the host Suns past the Chiefs 3-2 in the season opener for both teams.

“I was just trying to be aggressive,” Diaz said. “He threw me a first-pitch fastball and painted the outside corner. He made a good pitch, so I just got in there and battled back and he got two strikes on me. I just knew I need to put the ball in play. If I put the ball in play, something good is going to happen. Fortunately it did.”

Suns Manager Eddie Tisdale praised Diaz for the performance he gave Tuesday and the effort he gives on a daily basis.

“It’s amazing. The kid comes to work every single day,” he said. “He’s got one of the best work ethics I’ve ever seen. He takes care of himself. He’s a good student. He’s good off the field. Nothing surprised me to see him perform like that under pressure. It was fun to watch. If he can consistently go out and give us that performance on a consistent basis, then he’s got a chance to go far.”

Cardinal Gibbons opened the game strong as Tyler Norris singled and scored on Grant Trower’s double, followed by Nathan Pawelczyk’s sacrifice fly to bring in Craig Olsen.

University evened the score in the bottom of the fourth. Diaz belted a triple and came home on Mike White’s double. Brendan McKendry, who reached on an error, scored on a wild pitch.

The Chiefs, who got strong pitching from Chris Williams and Mark Nowatnick, had a chance to go ahead in the fifth, loading the bases with no outs before Shane Wise came in to pitch in relief of Andrew Denis. Wise capitalized on his fastball to record three strikeouts to end the threat.

“It’s every pitcher’s dream,” Wise said. “I had the opportunity to come in and shut them down, and I was able to do that. With the momentum in our favor, I knew we were going to win the ballgame.”

Both teams executed defensively in key situations in the sixth to keep the score knotted at 2. In the top of the inning, White recovered the ball in time after it was knocked loose on a collision with a Gibbons baserunner to throw out another runner attempting to score. In the bottom of the inning, catcher Drew Hanke recovered a wild pitch and fired to Karl Hirsh at third to throw out a baserunner.

Gibbons Manager Frank Pisani said he knew the game would be intense and tried to get that message across to his team before the game.

“I told them this was game one of 12 district games, and I told them to fasten their seatbelt because all 12 of those district games are going to be like this one,” Pisani said. “They’re all going to be dogfights. They’re all going to come down to the last inning, and whoever makes the least amount of mistakes is going to win the game. Today, it was University.”

Asked what his team can take away from the game, Pisani said “excellent pitching. Both my number one and two went and held a very good team to one earned run through seven innings. We have good pitching, we have good defense, and we’ll just have to be able to muster up a couple more runs.”

Tisdale said his team was happy to come out of the game with a win.

“Pisani comes over to me and says ‘What, we got like 11 more of these. We’re not going to live much longer if we keep playing games like this,'” Tisdale said. “It’s fun. It was a fun game to coach, fun game to watch. Cardinal Gibbons is a great ballclub. And when it’s all said and done and we get into the district playoffs, they’ll be there and they’ll be ready to go. They have a lot of talent from top to bottom.”

Tisdale said the pitching his team faced was typical of this district.

“Obviously Williams and Nowatnick are amazing pitchers, but that’s how it is in our district,” he said. “From top to bottom, everybody’s going to be solid. Everybody’s going to have one or two guys who are going to go out there and give you problems. Chris Williams and Nowatnick are probably Division I arms both of them, and when you face a Division I arm like those guys, you’re going to have to hang in there, you’re going to have to scrap, you’re going to have to fight, you’re going to have to produce runs and hope you come out on the upper end. And that’s how you have to go about it. Fortunately we were able to come out ahead. Easily the score could have been different.”

Leave a comment using your facebook account!