Hamilton’s Diaz shines in first playoff start
HAMILTON >> Nick Diaz had just one thing in mind.
“I wanted to show I was as good as any pitcher out there,” Diaz said.
Considering his mound opponent was Villanovabound Mike Jack Povey, the junior gave himself quite a challenge. It was one that he and Hamilton West met, as the top-seeded Hornets took an 11-0 win over 16thseeded Red Bank Regional in a NJSIAA Central Group III first-round game Monday.
In claiming its first state win since May 22, 2015, Hamilton (23-3) will host Hopewell Valley — who beat Neptune’s D-I pitcher — in Thursday’s quarterfinals.
Povey entered with a 3-3 record, 2.12 ERA and 64 strikeouts in 39.2 innings, and struck out 10 or more in each of his last four starts, but Diaz was the best pitcher out there in this one. Making his first state tournament start, he scattered three hits and one walk while striking out five in five innings before Jason Diaz threw a scoreless sixth. The game ended on the mercy rule when David Zamora hit a two-run homer over the left field fence, capping a 13-hit assault by West.
“Nick has been phenomenal all year and he was phenomenal again today,” coach Mike Moceri said. “All three of his pitches were working, he threw strikes. I’ll put him up against anybody.”
“I used everything today,” said Diaz, who improved to 6-1 and lowered his ERA to 1.11. “They couldn’t catch up to my fastball, which surprised me since I don’t throw very hard. The curveball was breaking good. And the change-up kept dropping.”
With Diaz dealing, Hamilton just needed to solve Povey, and it didn’t take long.
Steven Meckel drew a leadoff walk in the second and the Hornets put their precision small-ball game into action. Meckel took second on a wild pitch, went to third on Bryce Egan’s bunt single and scored on Justin Wiltsey’s bunt. Tyler Springett added an RBI triple to make it 2-0.
West was off and running from there, getting one in the third, four in the fourth and two in the fifth to knock out Povey.
“We knew he was good, we knew he had a great breaking ball and a good fastball,” Moceri said. “We just wanted to battle and get balls in play and execute when we had opportunities to score. We executed our bunts in the second inning. Little things against good pitchers get your momentum going. That’s really what helped us out today is getting ahead early and getting some confidence and we really put it together.”
Zamora had two hits and three RBI, Tyler Solymosi had two doubles and three RBI, and Connor Luckie, Danilo Perdomo and Sean Elefant each had two hits.
“Our approach was, we didn’t care if it was a bomb or not, just put it on the ground if we could,” Solymosi said. “I got a couple good ones and I sent it.”
Considering who they were throwing, the Bucs were considered an upset special in the first round.
“We saw some things that said we might get an upset loss and we knew he was gonna throw,” Solymosi said. “We just wanted to get something done and we did. This makes us more confident because now we know we can hit anyone’s ace.”
It also got the Hornets over the first-round speed bump, as they fell to Princeton in the opening round of the county tournament but have won six straight since.
“We knew we hadn’t got a win in four years in states,” Solymosi said. “And we didn’t want to do another one like the MCTs, so we showed them.”
Red Bank (7-16) Hamilton (23-3) 000 000 — 0 4 1 021 422 — 11 13 1
WP: N. Diaz. LP: Povey (3-4). 2B: H-Solymosi 2, Elefant, Perdomo. 3B: HSpringett. HR: H-Zamora. RBI: Zamora 3, Solymosi 3, Luckie, Wiltsey, Springett.
Follow Rich Fisher on twitter @fish4scores