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Gilliland signs
contract
6/3/2009
By CONOR NICHOLL
cnicholl@dailynews.net
At the end of the regular season, Fort Hays State University baseball coach Rick Sabath believed senior ace left-hander Eric Gilliland had a chance to play professional baseball.
"I really think that he has a future to continue to play," Sabath said before Fort Hays' final home contests.
Sabath's prediction proved accurate. Gilliland, one of the most durable pitchers in school history, signed with the Midwest Sliders of the independent Frontier League. The Sliders are based in Ypsilanti, Mich., and play at Eastern Michigan University. Gilliland, a Concordia native and a two-year pitcher for Fort Hays, earned back-to-back Mid-America Intercollegiate Athletics Association all-conference honorable mention honors.
Gilliland was expected to pitch for the Hays Larks this summer but will play professionally instead. The Larks were scheduled to open their season at home Tuesday against Lindsborg, but the game was rained out and moved to tonight. First pitch is 7 p.m. at Larks Park. Eddie Carl, who was 3-3 with a 4.63 earned-run average last summer, is the probable starter. Hays will likely team pitch.
The left-handed Gilliland needed little relief help in his Tiger career, especially this season. As a junior, he went 3-5 with a 6.29 ERA in 18 appearances (11 starts) in 782âÑ3 innings. This season, Gilliland was a fixture as Fort Hays' series-opening starter and posted an 8-7 record with a 3.82 ERA in 16 starts (six complete games) in 92 innings. Gilliand, helped by better command with his slider and a fastball that increased from 84 to 86 miles an hour as a junior to 85 to 90 as a senior, ranked first in the MIAA in starts, third in innings pitched and tied for third in victories.
Gilliland ranks sixth in school history for innings pitched in a single season, and his 1702âÑ3 career innings are tied for eighth. Gilliland's 76 strikeouts this spring are tied for eighth-most in school history, while his 142 career strikeouts rank ninth.
In the classroom, Gilliland, a health and human performance major with a 3.90 grade-point average, earned CoSIDA/ESPN the Magazine All-District first team honors. Gilliland and Tiger senior first baseman Dusty Washburn were two of three MIAA players named to the first team.
| Scoreboard | |||
|---|---|---|---|
| Sport | Date | Opponent | Score |
| BB | 03/17 | Missouri S&T | W 2-1 (10) |
| SB | 03/17 | Bethany | W 6-1 |
| SB | 03/17 | Bethany | W 8-1 |
| BB | 03/16 | Misosuri S&T | L 13-4 |
| MB | 03/14 | Central Missouri | L 80-73 |
| BB | 3/13 | NW Missouri | W 13-10 |
| BB | 03/13 | NW Missouri | W 4-3 |
| MB | 03/13 | Central Oklahoma | W 80-64 |
| SB | 03/08 | Fort Lewis | W 5-4 |
| BB | 03/07 | No. 9 Emporia State | L 13-7 |
| BB | 03/06 | No. 9 Emporia State | L 16-4 |
| BB | 03/06 | No. 9 Emporia State | W 3-0 |
| MB | 03/05 | Emporia State | L 65-61 |
| BB | 03/05 | No. 9 Emporia State | L 10-3 |
| WB | 03/04 | No. 15 Emporia | L 72-66 |
| WB | 02/28 | No. 12 Emporia State | L 87-80 |
| MB | 02/28 | Emporia State | W 94-47 |
| SB | 02/28 | Quincy | L 6-0 |
| SB | 02/27 | Mo Southern | W 9-3 |
| SB | 02/27 | Missouri S&T | L 8-3 |