OWEN DIODATI

Owen Diodati

SAYS TRANSFER TO OREGON IS ‘THE BEST DECISION I’VE EVER MADE’

SAYS TRANSFER TO OREGON IS ‘THE BEST DECISION I’VE EVER MADE’

The new addition has taken the reins as Oregon’s right fielder.

BY MOJO HILL • TWITTER @MOJOHILL22

This offseason, Owen Diodati faced a challenge that wasn’t new to him: He had to make a decision.

He entered the transfer portal last May after spending three seasons with Alabama. He wanted a place that would bring out the best in him, one that would give him a chance to play outfield on a regular basis. He received calls from numerous schools, and eventually narrowed it down to a short list that included Oregon.

Virtual interviews and phone calls commenced. His father, Ryan, was encouraged by his first impression of coaches Mark Wasikowski and Jack Marder. Owen, meanwhile, connected with a fellow Canadian who tipped the scale in favor of Oregon.

That was former Ducks pitcher Adam Maier, who’s now in the Atlanta Braves organization.

“He’s been a guy I trust with his opinion,” Diodati said. “I know he’d shoot me straight and wouldn’t lie to me.”

Diodati had previously played with Maier on the Canadian Junior National Team, and against him in the Cape Cod Baseball League. Now, he was turning to a friend and teammate for advice.

Maier had nothing but positive things to say about the Oregon program, despite only being part of it for a short time.

Diodati had success at Alabama. He loved it there. But just like when he gave up hockey to pursue baseball, or when he turned down a draft offer from the Toronto Blue Jays, he went with the choice that was true to his gut.

“I wanted to go somewhere with the right culture and a knack for development,” Diodati said. “The one thing here that really stood out to me was that everyone seemed to like the coaching staff. The things they put out, the messages, the culture.”

He’s immediately been inserted as a key piece of this Oregon lineup, one that set records in eight major statistical categories last year. In the first couple weeks of the season, he’s been Oregon’s primary right fielder and cleanup hitter. And he’s billed it “the best decision I’ve ever made.”

Tough decisions and new surroundings are nothing new for Diodati. As a kid, he played both baseball and hockey, with his father serving as his primary baseball coach until he was 13.

“You certainly saw him develop over the years, but it came a time when it was time to pass him on to the next level of coaching and the next level of teams,” Ryan said.

Around age 15-16, he had two major options to grapple with. He’d been drafted by the North Bay Battalion of the Ontario Hockey League, but the Canadian Junior National Team for baseball came calling around the same time.

“That’s when the light went on, and Owen made the decision that ‘You know what, I’m gonna focus on baseball at this point in time,’” Ryan said. “And he gave up hockey.”

At A.N. Myer High School, he was the starting catcher, which had been his primary position since about age 12. His freshman year, he played in the All-Star game and was named MVP.

He did it all as a high school baseball player, even though he missed time because of his commitment to the Junior National Team. He hit, caught and even pitched 10 scoreless innings.

As he started gathering interest from MLB scouts, his family was told he profiled as a corner outfielder. Defense was originally considered one of his weaknesses, which is only natural when you move to a new position. But he worked and worked at it.

“He craves repetition and practice to get better,” Ryan said. “He made it a personal commitment to himself that he was going to be an above-average outfielder. So it certainly speaks to his work ethic and everything that he does… He is the most determined and sometimes stubborn kid.”

But in 2019, another life-changing decision was thrown his way: He was drafted in the 29th round by the Toronto Blue Jays, the only MLB team in his home country. He could have jumped into the minor league life and started his professional baseball career. But he didn’t.

Instead, he went to Alabama. When he got there, he published a letter explaining his decision. He and his parents had set a price that the Blue Jays needed to hit, and while the team made a tempting offer, it ultimately wasn’t enough.

“Getting drafted is every kid’s dream,” Diodati wrote at the time. “Getting drafted by your favorite team is a whole different story! So, naturally, I was beyond stoked. But, I knew I had a tough decision to make… If you were to put me in the same situation again, knowing what I know now, Toronto could’ve tripled my number, and I still would’ve turned it down.”

Diodati roared out to a frolicking start in 17 games before the COVID-19 pandemic, hitting .309 with an 1.103 OPS. But he took a step back in 2021, hitting only .230 with a .734 OPS. He also wasn’t getting regular time in the outfield, the position he’d worked so hard to get better at.

His 2022 was a step towards the right direction, as he boosted his OPS to .826. Still, he played less than half his games in the outfield, and only started 41 games compared to 55 the year before.

He needed a change.

“Owen had an outstanding career at Alabama, and has nothing but respect for his teammates, for the school and his coaches,” Ryan said. “He just felt that in order to play every day, and not be primarily a designated hitter, that he wanted to look at other options — in terms of playing in the outfield, in terms of development, in terms of going to a school where the culture is winning, the culture is development. And Oregon checked all those boxes.”

True to that word, Diodati has received regular reps in right field in his time here. He kept his skills sharp with the Wareham Gatemen in the CCBL over the summer, playing all three outfield positions with them.

Not only is defense no longer his weakness, but it’s an area where those around him have seen the most improvement.

“I think he came in and really embraced Waz coaching the outfielders, embraced how Waz wants the game to be played from a defensive aspect,” Oregon left fielder Tanner Smith said. “He’s really excelled defensively, and I’m really excited to see the year he’s gonna have. It’s gonna be awesome.”

Those words were echoed by Wasikowski, who said Diodati had the best fall of anyone on the team.

“He was really spectacular,” Wasikowski told D1Baseball. “His defense improved tremendously. When we first got him, it didn’t look like he would be a defender, but he really did improve.”

Diodati’s parents, Ryan and Jody, had a chance to visit and watch one of the fall scrimmages. Ryan was most impressed with the feedback Wasikowski gave the team during and after the game.

“Coach Waz marks down good points and bad points, and they do a debrief of what happened in the scrimmage and how they can get better,” Ryan said. “So that whole development piece, that was something that Coach Waz certainly stressed in our discussions with him prior to Owen committing there.”

The reparations of his decision are already being felt. On a crowded, sunny opening day at PK Park, Diodati hit an RBI double, made a leaping catch, then later slapped a sacrifice fly to give the Ducks a walkoff win over Xavier — the second year in a row he’d opened with a walk-off against the Musketeers.

“I guess it’s just been fate that I’ve been put in that situation twice,” he said.

It’s poetic, in a way. Perhaps Diodati’s entire journey has been fate: from pursuing baseball instead of hockey, to choosing college over the Blue Jays’ offer, to finally ending up at Oregon.

“There’s no place I’d rather be,” he said with a smile.

Rikuu Nishida Stuns Pk Park Crowd With First United States Homer As Oregon Completes Sweep Of San Diego

BY MOJO HILL • TWITTER @MOJOHILL

You never know what you’re gonna see when you show up to the baseball field.

Prior to Sunday, Rikuu Nishida had gone 506 plate appearances in the United States without a home run between Mt. Hood Community College, two summer teams and Oregon. On a podcast before the season, scout David Seifert said he had 20-grade power.

All that changed with one flick of the bat.

Nishida, who regularly switches bats, came up to the plate in the first inning using a beige wooden bat, instead of the red metal one he used Saturday. As usual, he took his right-handed warmup swing before settling in the box. He swung on a first-pitch fastball, hitting one in the air to the left field. The ball kept carrying, and carrying, and to the shock of everyone in attendance — including the Oregon dugout — it flew over the wall.

“He just has the heart of a helper,” head coach Mark Wasikowski said. “However he wants to help a baseball team win or a person get better, he’s all in. He’s just such a unique person. It’s neat.”

Colby Shade and Gavin Grant joined the home run party, and once again the Ducks’ pitchers quieted a potent San Diego offense. Oregon completed a four-game sweep of the Toreros, beating them 5-1 Sunday afternoon.

“Improving,” Wasikowski said of the offense. “Not there yet, but improving. We’re seeing trends that are going in the right direction. And my prediction is as we want to play more and more team baseball and team offense, we’ll see the best offense we have.”

Matthew Grabmann got the start and only lasted three innings. His command issues continued from his previous outings as he issued two walks in the first inning. San Diego’s Kevin Sim overslid the bag trying to steal second base, helping Grabmann navigate through the inning unscathed.

Following Nishida’s miraculous moment in the bottom of the first, the Toreros tied it in the second. After a pair of singles and a sacrifice bunt, they knotted it up on a sacrifice fly, though a putout at third base helped limit the damage. It wasn’t tied for long. Shade hit a mammoth shot to left-center field, homering in his second consecutive plate appearance dating back to Saturday’s three-run bomb. After a slow start, Shade has burst out in a monumental way.

Grant followed suit in the third inning, squeezing one just inside the left field foul pole to make it 3-1.

Austin Anderson entered in the fourth to replace Grabmann, who gave up one run on two hits and two walks while not recording any strikeouts. Anderson utilized his deceptive diagonal arm angle to throw two perfect innings with a pair of strikeouts.

“Executing with my slider,” Anderson said of what was working. “That’s my best pitch. I throw so many sliders I can just kind of throw a fastball in there, and they’re sometimes late on it.”

With the Ducks batting in the bottom of the fifth, there was a 36-minute rain/snow delay. A wave of darkness and gloominess swarmed heavily over PK Park, but it passed quickly and the sun peeked out through the gray clouds.

Three Oregon pitchers combined to issue three consecutive walks in the sixth, with Oregon playing the matchups by sandwiching lefty Ian Umlandt between righties Dylan McShane and Matt Dallas. Dallas induced a ground ball to Nishida to strand the bases loaded.

Dallas escaped another jam in the seventh. He hit two batters, but got Sim swinging for his third strikeout of the inning.

“I didn’t think he pitched his best, but I thought he competed his best,” Wasikowski said. “The guy’s an animal on the mound. He’s an unbelievable competitor.”

Closer Josh Mollerus came in and dominated over the final two innings, striking out two and reaching 94 miles per hour. The Ducks allowed just three hits in the 5-1 win.

“He was sharp today. Yeah, he was the real deal today,” Wasikowski said of Mollerus. “In our terminology, that’s what it looks like at the end of the game. That guy was good today.”