Diaz’s hitting helps ZooKeepers to early success

ASHEBORO — Hitting a baseball is often said to be one of the most difficult things to do in sports. Unless your name is Yariel Diaz. Then it’s like second nature.

Diaz, who is in his second summer with the Asheboro ZooKeepers, enjoyed an incredible offensive season for Barton this past spring and that has carried over to the summer where he once again is among the league’s top hitters.

“He is an all-around solid hitter, a complete hitter with a good approach,”

ZooKeepers head coach and general Manager Kory Dunbar said of Diaz, who is hitting .381 this summer in 17 games, which is seventh best in the Coastal Plain League. “He goes about his business the right way. You don’t see him getting too high or too low.”

There were very few lows his entire junior season at Barton, a member of the Division II Carolinas Conference. Of the 53 games the Bulldogs played — they went 31-22 including a league record of 19-11 — Diaz failed to register at least one hit in only seven games. Of those 46 games he registered hits in, 12 were games where he had two hits, 10 times he recorded three hits and he registered two four-hit games.

Overall, he hit .366 (83-for-227) with 55 runs and 61 RBIs. He recorded 12 doubles, three triples and 10 home runs and his OPS of 1.009, his slugging per- centage of .577 and his OBP of .432 put him among the league’s top 10 in most categories.

This summer with Asheboro, he’s not only hitting .394 through Sunday, but he’s added six doubles, a home run and 19 RBIs.

“He just goes about his business in a professional way,” Dunbar said. “He’s extremely disciplined and he doesn’t miss a pitch. He has a grinder mentality. It’s fun to watch. He’s a key piece to us and our success.”

From the Dominican Republic, Diaz had had stops at the University of Cumberlands in Kentucky, Florida Southwestern State and Middle Georgia before landing at Barton.

He also went back home to the Dominican Republic in 2022 for a year of academy work, getting stronger, faster and becoming more mentally and physically prepared for collegiate baseball.

“When I was in the Dominican Republic, I’d wake up between 5 and 6 a.m. to be at the field at 7 a.m.,” Diaz said. “At 7:30 or 8, we were hitting. “We would do hitting drills off tees, front toss, side toss, also batting practice off the machine. We’d go until (noon) or so and take a break, eat and then come back and do another hour or two on de- fense and hitting.”

After stints at Florida Southwestern State and Middle Georgia, he entered the transfer portal and landed at Barton, where he quickly acclimated himself to Division II baseball.

 In all during his collegiate career, he has hit .339 with 18 doubles, three triples and 21 home runs with 101 RBIs in 100 games.

“NAIA was definitely lower competition, a lot of low to mid-80s,” Diaz said. “I didn’t see very much 90s and when you did, it was pretty much scattered all over the place. JUCO and Division II have very competitive pitchers. It was definitely a jump in pitching. The CPL Is similar. Sometimes it gets even more competitive and I think that’s awesome.”

Diaz said there was plenty of fall work at Barton prior to his first spring season and that allowed him to start the season successfully.

“The work we did in the fall and the approach we had at the plate, the developmental program at Barton was excellent,” Diaz said. “There’s a lot of hitting in the fall, drills that got me ready and the confidence they had in me.”

Not only has Diaz been a mainstay at the plate, but he has made himself a very important commodity defensively. He grew up playing third, but at Cumberlands he was asked to give catching a try in order to have a quicker way into the starting lineup. He quickly became a solid collegiate catcher,

“He’s a good player defensively.” Dunbar said. “It helps, especially with his bat, trying to keep him in the lineup. Him being able to play three positions makes him even more valuable.”

Diaz has played first, third and catcher in his two seasons with the ZooKeepers.

This year, there are some personal goals as well as team goals.

“This summer the goal was to get myself in front of more eyes,” Diaz said. “My goal is to try and play pro some- where. If you play the game the right way and do the right things and let God handle the rest, good things will happen.”

There have been plenty of good things that have already happened for Diaz.