When San Diego State junior second baseman Tim Zier stepped into the batter’s box in the top of the first inning Friday night in the opening game at the University of San Diego’s Fowler Park, he officially began his third season as an Aztec.
But Zier, an Escondido native and 2010 graduate of Escondido High School, says he’s been an Aztec a lot longer than that.
“Growing up, it was always a dream to play here,” Zier said before practice last Wednesday. “I used to come to the games as a little kid, and my uncle Freddy (Keiaho) played football here. I always felt like I was an Aztec growing up.”
While a freshman and sophomore in high school, Zier emailed SDSU assistant coach Mark Martinez to let him know he was interested in playing baseball for the Aztecs. When SDSU started reciprocating the interest his junior year, there was no doubt in his mind where he would commit.
“It wasn’t really a question,” Zier said. “It was easy for me.”
Zier played shortstop at Escondido High, but when he arrived on campus his freshman year, SDSU coaches moved him to second base in order to get his bat in the lineup. It’s a move that has paid off for head coach Tony Gwynn and his staff; Zier has played so well his first two seasons and was voted by Mountain West Conference coaches to the 2013 preseason all-conference team.
During his freshman season in 2011, Zier led the team with 68 hits and batted .358 with a .419 on-base percentage in 31 games while batting leadoff. He started in 54 of the Aztecs’ 57 games in 2011, including 34 starts at second base, 19 in left field and one at third base.
As a sophomore in 2012, Zier led the team with a .318 batting average and hit 11 doubles, while scoring 31 runs and collecting 32 RBIs. His 21-game hitting streak from Apr. 3 to May 11 was the longest by an SDSU player since current Detroit Tigers outfielder Quintin Berry’s 27-game hit streak for the Aztecs in 2005.
Similar to Gwynn when he played for the San Diego Padres, Zier is a singles and doubles hitter rather than a middle-of-the-order power hitter. Playing for Gwynn, who is a member of the Major League Baseball Hall of Fame, has been a dream come true for Zier.
“I grew up going to games at Qualcomm, so Gwynn was always an idol of mine,” Zier said. “He’s probably the best hitter to ever play the game. I try to not to take it for granted. It’s a real blessing to have him as your hitting coach and head coach overall.”
Gwynn says it’s also a blessing to have center fielder Greg Allen and Zier hitting at the top of his lineup.
“Allen and Zier really set the table,” Gwynn said following his team’s 8-1 victory against No. 12 USD on Friday night in the season opener. “Today, they got to hit with guys in scoring position and they did a really good job.”
In his first at-bat with Allen on first base after hitting a single, Zier roped a ball hard down the third-base line and into the left-field corner. Allen came all the way around from first base to score and Zier stood on second base with two new records–the first extra-base hit and first RBI in Fowler Park history.
Zier finished the season opener going three for five with three runs batted in and a run scored. He followed that up going two for five with two RBIs and a run scored in the Aztecs’ 4-2 victory against USD on Saturday night.
While his stellar play on the diamond has made it abundantly clear that he’s playing the right sport, Zier said that playing soccer and football while growing up has only helped him to become a better baseball player. That was never clearer than in a game on June 24, 2011 in the Alaska Baseball League, a collegiate summer league for top amateur prospects.
“I hit a groundball in the hole and I was running to first and it was a high throw,” Zier said, recalling how the throw pulled the first baseman Cael Brockmeyer off the bag and toward the first-base line. “He was huge, probably 6 foot 5, and he jumped up to get it. His knee just hit me right in my sternum and bruised my whole sternum. I was knocked out for a while and went to the hospital.”
Did that collision, which sidelined him for a week, cause him to pause the next time he ran toward first? Surely it was somewhere in the back of his mind?
“No,” Zier said. “It’s part of the game and playing football growing up helped me to be fearless. You just have to go out and play the game how it’s played every day.”
Spending summers playing against other top amateur prospects in summer leagues across the country have become the norm for Zier. He played in 2010 with the San Diego Waves of the National Baseball Congress, in 2011 with the Mat-Su Miners of the Alaska Baseball League and in 2012 with Wisconsin’s Eau Claire Express in the Northwoods League.
Many current and former Major League Baseball players have honed their skills in college and in the collegiate summer leagues, a path Zier hopes to follow as well.
“That’s all of our dream here,” Zier said. “Once you get to this level of college baseball, if you don’t have dreams of playing at the next level, then why are you here?”
But before he focuses on playing professional baseball or anything past this year, he still has a lot he wants to accomplish this season with his Aztec teammates.
“Right now, I’m just focused on having a good year here and helping our team win some games,” Zier said.
He’s not the only person to believe SDSU will win a lot of games this year. Conference coaches picked the Aztecs to finish second in the conference behind the University of New Mexico.
“It’s nice to have recognition and all that. But honestly, I just want us to keep going on with all the success that San Diego State has had. We already have four or five sports that have won conference,” Zier said. “So we just want to follow the other sports’ footsteps and finally have a winning season and some success here as a baseball program. We really deserve it, we all work hard and it’s bound to happen.”
Zier also has a message for SDSU baseball fans:
“No matter what happens at the beginning of the year, just stick with us because we’re going to win a lot of ball games this year.”
