Incoming Duke basketball transfer Mason Gillis might have won Big Ten Sixth Man of the Year honors on the basketball court in 2023-24, but his first national impression on the sports world came on the baseball diamond.
Gillis reached the Little League World Series in 2012 as a member of the New Castle Little League team that represented Indiana.
The new Blue Devil didn’t just coast his way to Williamsport at the bottom of the roster, either. He actually drove in the run that clinched New Castle’s ticket to the LLWS, a bases-loaded single in the bottom of the last inning against Kentucky that broke a tie in the Great Lakes final.
In a 2022 article from WLFI’s Kelly Hallinan, Gillis said he remembered feeling like a celebrity once he reached the big stage, signing autographs and taking pictures. He also said he held on to his equipment from that run, including his jersey and helmet.
“It’s such a once in a lifetime thing,” Gillis told Hallinan. “That’s how impactful it was in my life.”
Gillis and his teammates defeated Oregon in the opening round, but losses to Texas and Connecticut knocked them from the bracket.