Daily Bruin File Photo Former walk-on Bruin Paul
Diaz winds up before throwing one of his trademark
off-speed pitches.
By Dylan Hernandez
Daily Bruin Senior Staff
Fans arrived at USC’s Dedeaux Field expecting to see a
matchup between two of the top pitching prospects in the country,
as the Trojans’ Mark Prior was supposed to face off against
the Bruins’ Josh Karp. But the duel between the two pitchers
who would eventually be taken second and sixth overall in the 2001
Major League Baseball Amateur Draft never materialized.
Karp pulled a groin muscle the week before and was out for the
series, which was held this past April. On the mound in his place
was fifth-year senior Paul Diaz, who at 5 feet, 10 inches and 185
pounds, had the body of a snowman and looked more like a Krispy
Kreme customer of the month than a Division I athlete. And as he
began his warm-up, it was painfully clear he didn’t have
Karp’s agile moves.
Seeing Diaz hurl his slow-motion fastball to the plate, one fan
yelled, “We want Josh Karp!”
Diaz, however, didn’t mind that just about everyone in
attendance thought that he had no chance of toppling Prior. He was
used to the underdog role. His story was like that of many other
walk-ons in Bruin sports.
Walk-on athletes do not receive scholarships; however, most of
them are recruited. Even though they don’t receive free
tuition, they are given favorable consideration by the admissions
board beyond their grades and SAT scores.
Often, the reason they don’t receive a scholarship is due
to a lack of available scholarships for the sport. Sometimes a UCLA
walk-on athlete receives scholarship offers from other schools but
prefers attending UCLA.
Five years ago, Diaz had arrived at UCLA as a recruited walk-on
after a stellar but unspectacular prep career at St. Francis High
School in nearby La Canada. His high school coach, former Bruin
baseball and football player Jim Bonds, had called Bruin head coach
Gary Adams and convinced him to give Diaz a shot.
Because he had been in contact with the Bruin coaching staff,
Diaz came to UCLA in the fall of 1996 thinking he was guaranteed a
roster spot. That wasn’t the case.
He was cut during the tryout process and was labeled a
blueshirt. As a blueshirt, Diaz couldn’t practice with the
team, nor did he receive any of the clothing given to athletes. His
interaction with the players on the squad was limited to getting to
lift weights with them.
Diaz still returned the following year and despite being all but
assured he’d be cut again, Diaz made the team. In the spring
of 1998, Diaz clawed his way out of the Bruin bullpen to earn eight
starts when the top of the pitching rotation was hampered by
injury.
Over the next three seasons, Diaz’s existence on the Bruin
squad became one which was steady and reliable. He threw mostly out
of the bullpen, occasionally coming in to pitch a few innings when
the team was in trouble. And last year, when the UCLA pitching
staff was once more riddled with injury, Diaz became a weekend
starter.
Soccer player Dru Hoshimiya, a third-year athletic sophomore,
took a slightly different route to UCLA.
Through high school, Hoshimiya was a midfielder for the
powerhouse Claremont Stars in the Southern California club soccer
circuit. His team twice finished second nationally, winning several
big-name tournaments along the way.
Like Diaz, it was Hoshimiya himself who initiated talks with
some of the schools he was interested in attending. He sent packets
to several college coaches, informing them of the tournaments
he’d be at.
Hoshimiya, who graduated from South Pasadena High School in
1999, decided to go to California when the school offered him a
half-scholarship. After just one year, however, Hoshimiya asked
Berkeley for a release that would allow him to talk to other
programs regarding a possible transfer.
“I wanted to be closer to home and be on a team that could
contend for a national title,” Hoshimiya said.
Hoshimiya talked to Bruin soccer head coach Todd Saldana and
worked out a transfer. Similar to Diaz, he was not guaranteed a
roster spot. But, Hoshimiya said, “It was kind of a given I
would receive one since they got me to transfer.”
Due to NCAA regulations, Hoshimiya had to redshirt last season
even though he made the team. At the same time, he had no
scholarship money coming in. Yet unlike Diaz in his first year at
UCLA, Hoshimiya practiced with his team.
Having survived last year, Hoshimiya will get to lace up his
cleats as a Bruin this season.
Months removed from that April night in which he faced Prior,
Diaz still looks back at that game as one of the highlights of his
career.
While Prior’s fastballs were regularly clocked between 91
and 94 miles per hour, Diaz delivered his pitches at a much more
leisurely pace. Diaz’s fastballs never topped 83 mph and his
slider dipped into the 60s.
But as the game progressed, the Trojans found Diaz unhittable.
He hit his spots, forcing several ground outs and pop-ups. He
didn’t give up a run for the rest of the game. Although he
lost the game 2-0, he could take satisfaction in knowing that
Prior, the consensus No. 1 player in the country, needed his best
outing of the year to beat him.
When the game was over, Bruin head coach Gary Adams
couldn’t help but smile, even though his team had moved
closer to finding itself out of the NCAA Tournament.
“That’s what college baseball is all about,”
Adams said. “It’s great to see a guy like Paul Diaz, a
walk-on, take on a guy like Prior and pitch so well.”