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SportsCenter Feature Story - Tim Gillen of VT Club Baseball



Every perfect game in baseball has a big play or two that are looked back upon as those that saved what is considered one of the hardest feats to accomplish in all of sports.


But it’s not often that a perfect game occurs in a championship game. Or that the big play is made by a freshman, or a “rookie” as freshmen are called by Virginia Tech Club Baseball.


Tim Gillen’s over-the-shoulder snag on the left field warning track to keep pitcher Braden Huebsch’s perfect game alive against Iowa State would help propel the Hokies to win their first-ever National Club Baseball Association title, becoming champions of the 2021 season.


Three years later, Gillen is looking to hoist the NCBA trophy again. Except unlike last time, this is the end of the line for Gillen’s baseball career.


Tim Gillen’s first exposure to baseball began in Williamsburg, Va., where at the young age of three, he began playing tee-ball and catching with his parents and other family members, whose history with the game helped develop his love for America’s pastime.


“What really made me get into baseball was my grandfather, because he played at West Virginia," Gillen said.


“My mom played at ECU for softball. It was just a really big part of my life that they just kept pushing, and I really enjoyed playing it because it’s in my genes. … [My siblings and I] all grew up playing all different kinds of sports, but baseball was the one that stuck with me.”


Baseball became life for Gillen. Through elementary and middle school, Gillen would play for the local recreational league and travel team until, due to monetary reasons, he had to quit travel. Standing out amongst the rest of his peers for his tremendous skills, he began being recruited as a third baseman/right-handed pitcher by a plethora of Division One programs, including Virginia Tech.


Visiting Blacksburg a few times for tournaments with his travel team, Gillen had always wanted to go to Virginia Tech to play baseball and to be a part of its engineering program. The stars were aligning for him to become a Hokie, as he was offered a scholarship, but everything came to a screeching halt when he tore his ACL in his junior year of high school playing his second sport, football.


The dream of playing D1 collegiate baseball would sputter and stall after the injury. But Gillen remained determined to attend his dream school of Virginia Tech while also playing baseball at the club level. His plan came to fruition, as he was accepted into its aerospace engineering program and would enroll as a Hokie in the fall of 2020. That same fall, he would successfully try out to become a member of Virginia Tech’s club baseball team.


Gillen immediately wanted to see action on the field his first year. He wanted to show the upperclassmen that he meant business as a rookie.


“Throughout the whole year I would start, then I wasn’t starting one game, so I was actually fighting and I did really well. I think [my rookie year] probably was one of my best years honestly.”


Then came the World Series. After a year of proving to the team he could play, he was ushered into the biggest stage of club baseball.


“One of our fifth years was like, ‘I’m not doing well. Put Tim in. He’s gonna be playing,’” Gillen said. 


“I’d say I was a big, key player in my rookie year, at least in the World Series and winning. And that just made me feel good because I was playing with four of the seniors and the fifth-years that weren’t gonna experience playing baseball ever again possibly.”


Gillen’s work ethic and appreciation for those around him on the team hasn’t gone unnoticed. His teammates speak highly of him, and such respect would lead him to be voted to be VTCB Vice President by his teammates his junior year.


“He is [a leader on and off the field]. You don’t get voted into that role if these guys don’t trust in you and believe in you,” Connor Nguyen, a senior catcher, said. 


VTCB is different from other club teams in that it is entirely student-run. There is no manager, hitting coach, or pitching coach who helps control the team. Instead, it is operated by a President, Vice President, Treasurer, Marketing Officer, and two Assistant Officers who are nominated and elected by the team.


“If you’re voted into one of those officer positions, it’s a double-compliment in that people want you handling the club … but also people think you’re good enough to be an officer and kind of have that just automatic leadership role,” Ryan Pastirik, a fifth-year catcher, said.


As Vice President, Gillen was the one making calls of who would pitch and go into the game as well as read scouting reports and other information of the upcoming games. But due to his heavy workload as both an aerospace and ocean engineering major, he had to step down, and will not be VP his senior year.


Even with the strenuous workload, Gillen balances it while also having fun with his teammates. Nicknamed, “Silly Gilly,” he’s known for being serious when it matters, but will let loose when appropriate. Such times include hiding under a towel with food atop it on the beach to capture a seagull to starting dance circles to songs such as “Laffy Taffy” – which is also his walkup song – with teammates in the hotel.


Now, entering his senior year, Gillen is more determined than anyone to raise the trophy once again. His teammates think so, too.


“I don’t think there’s anyone more hungry to win again than Gillen,” Joseph Califano, a senior relief pitcher, said.


“Winning something like that and then getting so close to winning again in your next two times competing only makes you want it more. And he wants it bad.”

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