• BY JACK MOLITOR - JMOLITOR@vicad.com
• Originally published April 17, 2009 at 11:09 p.m., updated April 17, 2009 at 11:09 p.m.

• Other area players on Texas A&M-Kingsville's baseball roster or committed to Kingsville

  Trent Wagner-Memorial

  Chris Whitehead-Edna

  Chase Garcia-Memorial

  Keith Kieschnick-Bay City

  Trey Mattox-Yorktown

  Adrian Williams-Memorial

Four years of hard work paid off Friday for St. Joseph pitcher Denver Diefenbach.

Now he'll have four more years in a new environment to do even more on the baseball field.

Diefenbach signed a letter-of-intent to play baseball at Texas A&M-Kingsville in front of family, friends and coaches at St. Joseph High School.

"It's pretty exciting," Diefenbach said. "Everything is working out great. Got to finish up this year in baseball and go as far as we can go, and then continue my baseball path in college."

Diefenbach has led the Flyers pitching staff this season, going 8-1 with a 1.49 ERA and 64 strikeouts. The Flyers are 19-4 and 10-2 in TAPPS District 3-4A. They are in second place in district and in position for a playoff run.

Diefenbach said the wealth of local talent like Memorial's Trent Wagner who will also be at Kingsville and its proximity to his home were the major reasons for his choice.

"It was definitely a factor," Diefenbach said. "It's great knowing guys from here, and that's the most important thing, being close to them and close to home."

Flyers baseball coach Mike Shimek said that he was proud of Diefenbach and certain he would make the school proud at the next level.

"Denver loves the game," Shimek said. "There's a lot of little kid in him, and he works hard to get better and he's very competitive. We as a school and as a program want to congratulate him."

John Mares, St. Joseph athletic director and football coach, coached Diefenbach in football. Mares said he was glad to be leaving Diefenbach in good hands.

"The head coach is from around this area and he's got that program up and going," Mares said. "And we're expecting Denver to add to that."

Jason Gonzales, the head baseball coach at Kingsville, is from Cuero. He also coached at Skidmore-Tynan before taking over at Kingsville after the 2008 season.

The Kingsville Javelinas, a member of the NCAA Division II Lone Star Conference, won the conference championship in 2008 and made their second trip to the NCAA Tournament.

In Gonzales' first year at the helm, he has the Javelinas at 19-26.

"They liked how I pitched and how I handled myself on the mound," Diefenbach said. "It was all about how I handled myself on the hill."

The Flyers have three games remaining before the TAPPS playoffs.

They play San Antonio Christian at Riverside Stadium on Tuesday before traveling to Austin Brentwood Christian on April 24. They then finish the regular season on April 27 at Riverside against Austin St. Stephen's.

• Print
• •
• Share
  • Share this item

    Send this to a friend

  • Grab the link

    Copy and paste the link:

  • Blog about it

    Blog about this page.

  • Close
• •
• Favorite