Eagles’ Titus Gillihan hits second straight walk-off single

Late game heroics are starting to become the norm for the Federal Way Eagles as they won their second game on a walk-off single from the same player, Titus Gillihan.

Gillihan hit a walk-off single to beat White River High School, 9-8, on April 22. And on April 25, he hit a single in the bottom of the eighth to beat Thomas Jefferson High School, 2-1. The Eagles are now 9-4 overall with a 9-2 record in the NPSL, which is good enough for second in the league, behind just Decatur (10-1).

“It’s crazy. I’ve just kept it simple and my coach has talked about taking a two-strike approach and shorten your swing to get something in play,” Gillihan said.

After winning the game Tuesday, Gillihan was comfortable in an uncomfortable scenario.

“It felt so good. I got two strikes so I was a little nervous. But there is no feeling to describe the hit,” Gillihan said.

Gillihan smacked a one-out line drive over the head of Raider shortstop Kingston Edwards to score Orlando Young from third base and won the Eagles’ fourth game in a row.

“We joke about Titus and we check to see if he’s got a heartbeat. He’s a quiet kid, fantastic student, teammate, the whole bit. Nothing upsets him, nothing bothers him. We’ve finally gotten him to buy into a two-strike approach and he’s done as good of a job as anybody of taking that to heart,” Manager Ron Sherwin said.

Federal Way needed an extra frame to take down the Raiders, partly due to the fact that Orlando Young was on the mound and was going to make life difficult for Thomas Jefferson.

The University of Washington commit threw 7.1 innings, gave up four hits, and the one run was earned. Of the 22 outs Young recorded, 14 were via the strikeout.

“The one thing he has made a lot of progress with is last year he got into a lot of situations where he was burning up his pitch count in five innings. We don’t have the bullpen this year, but we needed him to understand that we all love strikeouts. But I like outs with one and two or three pitches,” Sherwin said.

Orlando has a mid-80s fastball and a devastating mix of off-speed pitches. Sherwin wanted him to work on attacking hitters early in counts, forcing them to put balls in play. Against the majority of lineups Federal Way will face, he can just overpower them.

“I told him, ‘I feel like I can stand behind the mound with a whiteboard and write what was coming and hold it up and they still won’t hit it.’ He’s done a fantastic job of covering what we want him to do now,” Sherwin said.

Runs came at a premium as coming out of the Raider dugout was sophomore Luis Sanchez. The Raider right-hander tossed seven innings and allowed just three hits and gave up one run that was unearned.

Gavin Holly hit a leadoff single in the third inning, and Orlando Young reached on a fielder’s choice. Young stole second, and after advancing to third on a passed ball, Ethan Lankford lined a single up the middle to tally the game’s first run.

“We are getting some help from the bottom of our lineup. Holly has begun to put the bat on the ball and this is a kid who struck out 57% last season. Now he is competing and buying in to some of the things that coaches are giving him,” Sherwin said.

Thomas Jefferson immediately responded with a run in the top half of the fourth. Liam Heary hit a fly ball to left field that snuck by Holly and he cruised to second base with a double, just the second hit of the day for Thomas Jefferson. Wyatt Anderson singled to center after Kort Baker popped out, and the Raiders looked to pounce on Young right after Federal Way took the lead.

Heary scored on a balk called by the base umpire after the pitcher didn’t come fully set, tying the game 1-1.

After that run came across, Young retired six out of the next eight Raider batters and faced two over the minimum until he was taken out of the game with one out in the seventh for Cam Noel.

Young reached base for the second time after getting hit on the ninth pitch of the first at-bat in extra innings. A sacrifice bunt moved him to second and a passed ball put Young on third. With Raider Manager Joe Townsend bringing the infield in, all Gillihan needed to do was put a ball over the infield and on a 3-2 pitch — and he did just that to win the game.