When it comes to flat out speed on the basepaths and in the outfield, there might not be any player in the country who can match San Diego (Calif.) Cathedral’s Matt Moynihan.
A four-sport athlete for the Dons, Moynihan is often a blur in the field of play. Clocked at 6.45 seconds in the 60-yard dash, Moynihan has stolen 81 bases over his high school career and is a threat to turn singles into triples if a basehit isn’t played cleanly by the outfielder.
“I remember a time he hit a gapper his sophomore year,” said Cathedral coach Gary Remiker. “He turned it into an inside-the-park home run. He literally outran the baseball. He’s one of the fastest kids in the nation and he’s a big kid who scouts envision being able to add power to his already considerable speed.”
Matt Moynihan, Cathedral Catholic
Photo by Kirt Winter
Ranked No. 90 in the MaxPreps Baseball Top 100, Moynihan (6-foot-2, 205) helped the Dons win a San Diego Section Division 3 championship last year and they are the favorite to win it again this season. The Dons begin their defense this week, taking a 22-6 record into the postseason.
Moynihan has been a sparkplug all season long. Besides batting .421, he leads the team in runs scored with 40 and he also has four triples and three home runs among his 32 hits. On the basepaths, he’s stolen 17 bases, to add to the 30 he had last year and the 34 he had as a sophomore.
Moynihan is expected to be one of the top outfielders selected in next month’s MLB draft. According to several mock drafts, Moynihan could go early in the second round and likely no later than the third round.
“I try not to think about it too much,” said Moynihan. “But I’ve talked with several major league scouts and they all say I’ll be drafted in the early rounds. It will be fun to get drafted and then see what happens.”
If Moynihan decides not to sign with a professional team, he’ll stay in his home town to attend the University of San Diego.
“San Diego is a special place to live. It is unbelievable,” he said. “The beach, the weather, the seafood. It only rains 14 days a year and there are great baseball players everywhere in the county.”
Moynihan spent most of his summer away from San Diego, however, playing in the Area Code Games in Long Beach in August, the Wood Bat Worlds in Atlanta, the Tournament of Stars in Cary, N.C., and for the Atlanta Braves national scout team in Jupiter, Fla.
“My experience was terrific all summer and fall,” he said. “It was also great to be one of 32 players selected at the Tournament of Stars for the U.S. National Team Trials in Phoenix.”
Besides his “rare ability to run like the wind,” as Remiker puts it, Moynihan is also a tremendous all-around athlete. He was a two-year starter at running back for the Dons and played on the section championship team his junior year. Moynihan decided to focus on baseball during the fall and did not play football, thus missing out on the Dons’ undefeated state championship season.
Moynihan did play basketball, though, and he earned all-league status after averaging 13 points a game and leading the team in rebounding. The Dons went 17-14 and reached the state quarterfinals for the first time in nine years.
Moynihan has also dabbled in track during off days in the baseball schedule and he recorded the best times in the 100 and 200 meters on the team during his sophomore season.
However baseball is Moynihan’s future and he works every day toward improving his game.
“Besides hitting 4-to-5 nights a week after practice and games, I like to sit and talk about my game every week with coaches who know me well to get their feelings about what I am doing,” he said. “I also work out with a trainer during the week. No matter how good you think you are, you must put in the work. The more work you put in, the better prepared you are.”
Moynihan has good athletic genes. His dad was a four-year starter on the baseball team at Amherst while his mother ran track at Iowa. He credits his father with teaching him how to approach the game physically and mentally.
“He taught me that you are going to fail 7 out of 10 times at the plate, it just matters how you deal with the failure those seven times.”
