Incoming senior picked to play in elite showcase
From a performance standpoint, Darin Gillies didn’t have much
time to stand out.
While trying out at Westmont College in Santa Barbara for the
2010 Area Code Baseball Games, which is considered one of the most
exclusive showcases in the nation, as prospective players must be
invited by professional scouts simply in order to compete, talent
evaluators needed to whittle down 33 pitchers into a select few
during live hitting, and gave each hurler just three batters to
face in order to show they belonged.
Incoming senior picked to play in elite showcase
From a performance standpoint, Darin Gillies didn’t have much time to stand out.
While trying out at Westmont College in Santa Barbara for the 2010 Area Code Baseball Games, which is considered one of the most exclusive showcases in the nation, as prospective players must be invited by professional scouts simply in order to compete, talent evaluators needed to whittle down 33 pitchers into a select few during live hitting, and gave each hurler just three batters to face in order to show they belonged.
No pressure, right?
“It was a lot of pressure,” said Gillies, an incoming senior at San Benito High School and starting pitcher for the Haybalers baseball team. “But they don’t base it on 100 percent performance. They kind of know about you going in. They keep tabs on you.
“But you do have to go in there and pound the strike zone. You have to pitch to contact and get guys to swing the bat. You have to show them a reason why you’re different than the other guys fighting for that spot.”
And with just three batters to prove it, as well as all the background information scouts had on him entering the Santa Barbara tryout, Gillies stood out enough to make the 25-man roster.
“It’s a real big one. It’s real important,” said Gillies, who will play for Milwaukee Brewers “White,” which is made up mostly of players from Northern California. A second team, the Milwaukee Brewers “Blue,” is predominantly made up of players from Southern California.
“It was one of my goals this summer,” Gillies added. “There is a lot of great, talented players in California, and there were a lot of great kids (trying out). But I just went out there and tried to play to the best of my ability.”
Gillies will be one of 11 pitchers on the Brewers, which will now play in an eight-team tournament from Aug. 5-10 at Blair Field in Long Beach.
The other seven teams — each represented by a professional ball club — boast players from specific regions from across the country. The Oakland Athletics, for instance, will include players selected from the southeast region of the United States, including Florida, Alabama and Georgia.
“It’s pretty cool,” Gillies said. “It’s pretty special.”
This year will mark the 24th year of the Area Code Games, which began in 1985 in Lodi under Bob Williams.
Williams initially worked with major league scouts in order to identify the top high school underclassmen from specific geographical regions, and place those select players in a wood-bat tournament showcase — free of charge, according to the tournament’s website.
Since its inception, the Area Code Games have produced more than 300 major league players.
What sets the tournament apart from others is its player-selection process, however. While tryouts are conducted — in California’s case, to whittle some 300 baseball players down to a select 50 for two teams — players find themselves at those tryouts only after they are invited by a major league scout.
In fact, according to the tournament’s website, some 3,000 invitations are sent out across the country each year, and a total of approximately 200 players are selected.
Gillies was invited by Nathan Trosky, a scout with the Brewers.
“It’s great to be recognized as one of the top 10 pitchers in Northern California and to be recognized with some of the other players on that list,” Gillies said.
Other notable players on the Brewers’ roster include Shawon Dunston (Valley Christian), Tyler Goeddel (St. Francis), Brett Fuller (Mitty), Joseph Ross (Bishop O’Dowd), Robert Stephenson (Alhambra) and Trevor Gretzky (Oaks Christian), son of Wayne Gretzky.
“I didn’t feel intimidated and I didn’t feel out of place,” Gillies said of the tryouts. “I felt like I could compete.”
Each major league ball club is represented at the event, where each Area Code team will play in five games over six days.
Gillies, who made a verbal commitment to Arizona State in April, was named Pitcher of the Year in the Tri-County Athletic League last season after going 9-2 for San Benito with a 1.40 earned run average.
Perhaps more impressive, he struck out 97 batters over 65 innings pitched last season and allowed just 13 earned runs.
The right-hander even managed to showcase that hard-throwing ability during his allotted three batters at the Area Code tryout in Santa Barbara earlier this month. Gillies induced a ground-ball out on a 1-2 pitch to the first hitter he faced, then struck out the next two batters.
“It’s pretty special for me to be involved in the event and to be selected,” Gillies said. “There was a lot of great talent out there.”
