BLOOMINGTON — Waubonsie Valley pitcher Seth Gilliland looked around at his surroundings Monday night and saw a glimpse of his future.
Then the senior left-hander went out and treated the crowd to a stirring final memory of a high school career that ended a couple games earlier than he would have liked.
“Coming into the field, it was pretty cool seeing everyone lined up waiting to see this game,” Gilliland said. “As we were warming up, it’s like, ‘This is going to be our day.’
“We’re going to love this. We’re going to embrace it all — the crowd, the college field aspects, the nice background. It’s just what you want in a baseball game.”
Gilliland and the Warriors went out and got everything they wanted except a win in the Class 4A Illinois Wesleyan Supersectional.
Committed to newly crowned NCAA Division III national champion Wisconsin-Whitewater, Gilliland tossed a complete-game four-hitter with no walks and five strikeouts. But favored Normal Community was just a bit better and eked out a 2-0 victory at Jack Horenberger Field.
Sophomore catcher Shane Torres praised Gilliland’s performance for Waubonsie (23-13).
“It was one of his best outings, especially in a tough game,” Torres said. “They put the barrel on the ball, good-hitting team, found some spots there in the first inning.
“But after that, he pretty much shut them down.”
Indeed, the first cut the Ironmen (32-4) took against Gilliland was the deepest. Gavin Michaels led off the bottom of the first with a triple off the center field fence and scored on a groundout.
Normal didn’t get another baserunner until the fifth, when Gavin Swartz had a leadoff single, was bunted to second and scored on another groundout.
“Definitely my command was a little off at first, but I dialed in my off-speed,” Gilliland said. “Definitely my curveball was working for me. Definitely getting them off balance when I needed to.
“I changed up my grip a little bit and got a little bit more arm-side run on my fastball now, so I think that definitely helped and it paired well with the curveball. The change-up wasn’t as good like it usually is, but just gotta come out here and deal with what you have.”
The Warriors came in having won 10 of their last 11 games but couldn’t break through against Luke Klunke, who took a no-hitter into the sixth before getting out of a bases-loaded jam.
Then in the seventh, Waubonsie was down to its final strike before senior first baseman Connor Beren singled. Klunke hit senior shortstop Owen Roberts with a pitch and gave up an infield single to senior left fielder Hiroshy Wong to load the bases.
But Lucas Beaty relieved Klunke and delivered a strikeout on three pitches to end it. Gilliland probably deserved a better fate, but he gave his team a chance.
“He’s grown a lot as a young man and really kind of taking on the leadership role this year,” Waubonsie coach Bryan Acevedo said. “What he’s done on the mound for us has just been unbelievable and we got to see that (Monday).
“Unfortunately, we just weren’t able to scratch some runs across.”
Even so, Gilliland enjoyed his final game with a group of 15 fellow seniors, most of whom have played together since T-ball. That it came on a college field made it even better.
“It definite opened my eyes a little bit to what the world of college baseball is going to be in the future,” Gilliland said. “I absolutely love this game and I’m going to remember this forever.
“This is awesome.”
Matt Le Cren is a freelance reporter for The Beacon-News.
