From the living room to the diamond, Zaragoza’s solid defense keys Sooners
When Brandon Zaragoza was growing up in Moore, he’d push the couches to the side of the living room in his family’s house.
He’d throw down some dog pillows by the fireplace and practice his base running by putting on his baseball pants and leading off from one end of the room and streaking across before sliding into the dogs’ beds for protection.
Then he’d grab a foam ball and take advantage of the open space of the living room, diving and sliding across the floor as he practiced making acrobatic defensive plays.
“God blessed me with the ability to go out there and pick it a little bit,” Zaragoza said.
Friday, Zaragoza begins his second season at Oklahoma when the Sooners open against Indiana at the Baseball at the Beach event in Myrtle Beach, S.C.
During his first season with the Sooners, Zaragoza showed just how much those living room sessions paid off.
He had a .975 fielding percentage in 57 games — 56 starts at shortstop — as a freshman and quickly developed a reputation as the best defender in the Big 12.
“If he hit .100, that’s all that matters to me, because I know if it’s hit to him, you’re going to get out,” Sooners coach Skip Johnson said. “That’s what kind of defender he is.”
Zaragoza struggled with a lower-back injury, re-aggravating an issue that had bothered him at times during his highschool career at Westmoore, over the summer that limited his work for most of two months.
He says he’s finally back to full strength.
“Him being healthy is the biggest key for us right now,” Johnson said. “You see a great baseball team, you see a baseball team that they’re really good up the middle . ... That’s who he is. That’s what he’s about.”
The injury limited his work on the offensive side of things, where Zaragoza hit .251 with a .605 OPS a year ago.
“I’m not the biggest guy out there so I have to rely on using my hands,” the 6-foot, 165-pound Zaragoza said. “With the problem with my back, I couldn’t really get into pitches that well so I had to really start focusing on my hands and how to hit with my hands.
“Once I figured out that side of the game, I feel a lot more comfortable with bat control and everything.”
But it’s Zaragoza’s defense that makes him the player he is, as those sessions in his family living room paid off.
“I just like making the plays that others think that, ‘There’s no way he’s going to get that,’ or up the middle and then, ‘Ah, there’s no way,’ and then something crazy happens and then the whole crowd gets up and goes crazy so that’s my favorite part about it,” Zaragoza said of what he loves about being a top defender.