A Closer Look: Donica's heroics dominate day
5/28/2016 8:18:00 PM | Baseball
SUGAR LAND – Three outs stood between Sam Houston State junior starting pitcher Heath Donica and a no-hitter in Saturday's semifinals elimination game against Stephen F. Austin.
Although the Lumberjacks spoiled the no-no with a single to right field that was close to being snagged by a diving Riley McKnight, Donica completed the game giving up just two hits to lead the Bearkats to Sunday's noon Southland Tournament championship game against Southeastern Louisiana.
“Twenty years of doing this, I don't think I know that I've ever seen an effort that heroic as Heath Donica just put on,” second-year head baseball coach Matt Deggs said. “He put us on his back and got us to the championship game. I was literally praying for him to get that no-hitter there.”
SFA forced the doubleheader after taking the early game 1-0. Donica told assistant coach Jay Sirianni earlier in the day that he'd be ready to pitch even though he was coming off just two days rest from Wednesday's 5-3 win over the Lumberjacks.
“When we got the back in the dugout [between games], coach Deggs looked at me and said, 'do you want the ball?' and I said 'yes sir,'” Donica said. “And he said, 'you got it. Go get 'em.' And that's just a really good feeling to know that he trusts me to come out there for our guys.”
Donica said he noticed the no-hitter early after about three innings, but he didn't think too much of it.
“Throughout the game it didn't really grow on me,” Donica said. “It was in the back of my mind, but it wasn't bothering me or anything. But of course, I want to see a replay on Riley McKnight's ball because I thought he caught that ball… I thought he made a great effort on it.”
Although the Kats weren't able to preserve the no-hitter, they were still able to come out with defensive stops to keep the no-hitter going for so long.
“Everybody was clicking on all cylinders right there,” first baseman Zach Smith said. “Everyone knew what we needed to do. Of course you're superstitious when something like that is going on, but we were looking up there hoping to do our part to help him achieve that goal because that's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity.”
Donica's two-hit performance improved his record to 10-3 on the season, tied for the most wins in the Southland Conference. He also fanned 10 batters to move him to 93 total strikeouts this year, which ranks fourth for strikeouts in a season in Bearkats lore, passing Stephen Prihoda's 1994 mark.
“He wanted the baseball, and I was happy gave it to him,” Deggs said. “There was no way I was taking him out of that ball game. I promise you one thing – he wasn't coming off that mound. What can I say, I love the kid and he did an incredible job for us today.”
