Diaz, Vargas competing in premier event

Wayland Baptist baseball players L.J. Diaz and Luis Vargas are competing this week in what is considered college baseball's biggest event of the year, the Collegiate Summer Baseball Invitational.
 
The CSBI is an invitation-only, four-team regional formatted tournament featuring rosters composed of 100 top players from elite universities throughout the country, hand-picked by the CSBI coaching staffs.
 
Wayland's Diaz and Vargas are two of only three NAIA players competing in the event, joined by USAO pitcher Colton Williams.

The event, held at Bryan/College Station, began with three days of practice followed by three days of competition, which began today. Both Diaz and Vargas are members of the Independence team, which plays its first game at 9 p.m. tonight (Thursday) on ESPN2. Vargas is set to start in right field and bat fourth, while Vargas is scheduled to pitch the sixth and seventh innings.
 
The event has been coordinated with local health officials and includes the full quarantining of everyone involved, including players, coaches, umpires and broadcast team. Everyone is being secured in a local hotel for the entirety of the week. All participants were tested for COVID-19 upon their arrival, and are being checked daily for any medical conditions.
 
In addition to ensuring the safety of all the participants off the field, the CSBI staff has put rules in place to ensure player safety on the field as well. Brian Nelson, the event's director of baseball operations, said, "All of these players are beyond excited to get back out on the field. They missed their spring seasons and have been cooped up at home for a while now. But this is also why we have to be smart and extra careful about how we let the players re-enter competitive play. We are putting multiple rules and limitations in place like pitch counts, innings and appearance limits. This will allow us to expand the rosters and give a lot of players the opportunity to participant in this awesome event. This is a free event for the players and we just want coaches and families to know that their kids are being taken care of."
 
The three-day event is being broadcast via a pay-per-view subscription, with part of the proceeds benefiting No Kid Hungry.
 
More information on the CSBI, including how to watch, is available here.
 
Vargas, a 6-foot-5, 235-pound senior centerfielder from Boston who was born in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, was named Wayland's first-ever Sooner Athletic Conference Baseball Player of the Year. One of the most prolific sluggers in the NAIA this season, Vargas blasted an NAIA-best 20 home runs in 30 games prior to the season being cancelled by the coronavirus pandemic. He also led the NAIA in RBIs (55), runs scored (49) and total bases (122) and spearheaded Wayland's NAIA-leading offense by rating second nationally in slugging percentage (1.184), hits (51), homers per game (0.67) and total bases per game (4.07) as well as third in RBIs per game (1.83) and runs scored per game (1.63).
 
A first-year transfer from Ranger Junior College, Vargas produced a .495 batting average, nine doubles, one triple and six stolen bases for the Pioneers, who topped the NAIA with 308 runs scored and ranked second in total RBI (281), homers per game (2.167), total hits (321) and slugging percentage (1.184). Vargas, whose .495 batting average ended seventh in the NAIA, twice blasted three homers in a game to tie a program record and drove in a season-high seven runs. He was three-time SAC Player of the Week and NAIA National College Baseball Writers Association Player of the Week for Feb. 3-9.
 
Vargas, who finished four home runs short of the program record for home runs (24, Kevin Hennessey, 2010), previously was named All-NAIA Ball.
 
Diaz, a 6-foot-6, 235-pound senior from Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic, was the Pioneers' No. 1 pitcher. In eight starts, he produced a 4-1 record, including two complete games, and a 2.93 ERA. The hard-throwing right-hander recorded 65 strikeouts while allowing 23 walks.
 
In both of his complete games, both of which were two-hitters, Diaz struck out 10. The first-year transfer from Tusculum University (Tenn.) struck out at least eight batters in all but two of his eight outings.