By Christopher Tremblay, Staff Sports Writer

Growing up James Hillis found himself playing t-ball like so many kids in Auburn. By the time that he was playing for the Double Play Invaders, a travel baseball team, he realized that he had a special talent to play the game and knew that the eventually he wanted to play for the high school team.

“I learned a lot from the coaches at Double Play and how to improve my skills on the field,” Hillis said. “I was nine or 10 years old playing against kids who were 12 and 13 years old and I was able to keep up with them.”

While he was a solid defensive shortstop, Hillis found that his hitting was still not the greatest. He believed that he was undersized at 5 foot-2 inches and about 130 pounds, but that wasn’t going to stop him from achieving his dream. 

Entering Auburn High School he decided to join the golf team as well as being part of the unified basketball team but was anxiously awaiting the spring so he could try out for the baseball team.

When the tryouts began Hillis found that his confidence was not at all soaring high and although he was hoping to earn himself a spot on the varsity team, he was doubtful that he would. Hillis’ instincts were correct and he landed himself on the junior varsity in his freshman campaign.

“I was disappointed that I was playing JV, but it gave me the opportunity to learn a lot that year while building my game,” he said. “I was able to get better and gain confidence in myself playing every game at shortstop. In the off-season I worked out more and gained some weight.”

Hillis found that once he stepped onto the baseball field all he wanted to do was play shortstop, a position that he really enjoyed. He loved being the leader of the infield. As a sophomore, he would do so on the varsity team along with a handful of other second year players.

Originally, he found himself sitting on the bench behind a team’s starting shortstop, but when that shortstop pitched Hillis would take his place in the center of the diamond. After getting some reps playing the position his defensive ability started to shine through and turn heads on the coaching staff. Soon the sophomore would take over the position.

Although first year Auburn coach Mike Brousseau wasn’t on the squad back then, he has been impressed with the shortstop now as a senior.

“This team has a lot of athletic ability, but James is solid, one of the best I’ve seen at this position making play after play,” Brousseau said. “He anchors our defense and has a cannon for an arm and has very good range with a soft glove that never allows anything to get by him.”

In fact, the new Rockets coach frequently uses the shortstop as a teaching moment for the younger players. Brousseau has the younger players watch as Hillis takes ground ball after ground ball and he never allows anything to get under his glove. 

The senior noted that he works incredibly hard on his defense and it is something he takes pride in. While his defense is top notch, he believes that his offense needs work and wants to take his hitting to the next level. 

The Auburn coach would beg to differ with his senior shortstop.

“He hits in the five or six slot and is part of a team that scores runs. He is a solid line drive hitter,” Brousseau said. “He is hitting .318, has an on base percentage of .483 with seven hits, five RBI’s and nine runs scored through the first nine games of the season.”

Last spring the Rockets earned a Division 3 tournament berth after going 10-10 on the season. Auburn would defeat Worcester Tech 13-0 in the preliminary round but were sent packing in the first round with a 5-3 loss to Bishop Stang. This year Hillis and his teammates are looking to avenge that loss.

“Coming into the season our goal was obvious – to win a state championship,” Hillis said. “For myself, it’s my senior year and just want to go out and have fun with the guys I grew up playing baseball with.”

At the time of this writing, the Rockets were 12-1 and their goal still very much alive. As for Hillis, he is enjoying his final year with his friends and has even hit his first homerun of his high school career against North Middlesex. According to Hillis, he was just trying to get the run home from third and didn’t think anything of it when he first hit the ball, until it kept sailing and eventually went over the fence.

When the final out happens for Auburn it will be time for Hillis to move onto bigger things. The senior will be attending Bryant University in Rhode Island. Still believing that he is small in size, he doesn’t plan on playing baseball for the Bulldogs. 

“I didn’t want to sacrifice my academics (Hillis will be majoring in Finance with a minor in Economics) just to play baseball,” he said. “I haven’t thought about walking onto the team and trying to make the team. We’ll have to wait and see what happens, I still have a high school season going on. Once the season is over then I’ll take a look at things.”