Prep baseball: With an ace on the mound, Whitney inches closer to section championship

Whitney High School baseball coach Jackson Watt strutted out to the pitching mound in the bottom of the seventh inning Monday to check on his star pitcher Jace Gillmore.

After pitching 6⅔ scoreless innings, Gillmore gave up four runs to cut the Whitney lead in half. After a brief meeting, Gillmore went back to work and recorded the final out.

Gillmore had no intentions of coming out of the game. His coach was confident his ace could finish the job. Behind Gillmore’s strong outing and early offense by the home team, the second-seeded Wildcats beat Oak Ridge 8-4 in the first of a three-game series in a Sac-Joaquin Section Division l semifinal in Rocklin.

Leading the Wildcat offense was Jax Gimenez, who drove in two runs. Gillmore, Gavin McLendon, Jonathan Vavak and Nathan Erickson all had an RBI.

“He had faith in me,” Gillmore said on why his coach kept him in. “I was one out away and he told me to get the last out. Just get it done and that’s what I did.”

Watt added, “With Gillmore on the mound, we know he’s going to give us a good start. When we score first, it gives our kids a lot of confidence, especially with two aces going. … He’s been really impressive this season. All that hard work has been paying off. He’s been grinding the past few years to get to this point.”

Gillmore has been impressive. The junior was named co-MVP of the Sierra Foothill League and is 10-0 with a 1.68 ERA this season. He started playing baseball when he was 5 years old and hasn’t looked back.

“I loved baseball since I started playing,” Gillmore said. “That’s why this is pretty cool to me to be at this type of level and pitch for my team and school. We are getting a ton of support right now.”

When Watt took over the Whitney program five years ago, the program won 28 games total in his first four years. Part of that can be attributed to COVID-19 and the other is playing a brutal non-league schedule coupled with playing in one of the most competitive leagues in the area.

This season has been different. With a young roster with only five seniors, Whitney burst onto the scene by winning the SFL and has 26 wins and counting this season.

“It’s been a lot of hard work from our coaching staff and community,” Watt said. “It’s been really cool to see all that pay off. … We have an awesome group of kids that have been here since day one. It says a lot about them with how far we have gone this season as a young team. It’s all about the culture (we have created) and buying in from day one.”

Lack of playoff experience due to the pandemic has been a common theme in the area. Most players on the Whitney roster were freshmen when the program started 3-1-1 in 2020, before the season was wiped out. Whitney almost saw its season come to an end in both of the first two playoff games this season. The Wildcats had to rally from two runs down in the opener against Pleasant Grove to win in extra innings and comeback from four runs down in the final inning versus St. Mary’s of Stockton.

The team has a new nickname: “Cardiac ‘Cats.”

“It’s what the parents came up with,” Gillmore said. “They’re having heart attacks over there in the stands. That’s our motto.”

Because of the new section playoff format, these teams will meet again Wednesday, this time in El Dorado Hills. In the past, this round would be played at a neutral site. The change now allows schools to host, something Watt can get behind.

“It’s cool with me,” Watt said. “It’s really cool to have the home sites (in this round). Sometimes when we get to those championship games, they (have) a smaller crowd. It’s been an awesome playoff atmosphere in the three games that we had here. In the future it would be cool to have a three-game series to end it.”

Oak Ridge (17-14) was lead by Braden Frank, who had two hits and drove in a run. Christian Cochran and Kaden Koschik both had an RBI.

This story was originally published May 17, 2022 at 7:23 AM.