Diamond pitcher: Division's James Sill lives up to coach's prediction
James Sill of Division is awarded the Diamond Award for pitcher of the year during the Nassau County Baseball Awards dinner on Thursday, June 15, 2023 in Uniondale. Credit: Dawn McCormick
Tom Tuttle knew about this promising eighth-grade baseball player in Levittown and heard he was bound for a Catholic school. So the Division coach wrote the kid a letter, predicting the future if he were to come play instead for the Blue Dragons.
“The letter I wrote to him was about our tradition at Division, how we’re great at developing players, how we’ve had Diamond Award winners, and, ‘If you come to Division, I can see you not only as a county champion, but a Diamond Award winner,’ ” Tuttle said.
“I kind of was like Nostradamus,” he added, happily.
James Sill did go to Holy Trinity as a freshman but then came to Division. This year, the senior righthander/first baseman not only became a county champion with a 27-2 team but a Diamond Award winner as Nassau’s Pitcher of the Year.
Sill, who’s Division’s county-leading 12th Diamond winner, received his trophy Thursday night at the Nassau County Baseball Coaches Association awards dinner at the Marriott in Uniondale.
“He came to us as a sophomore, out of shape, didn’t really want to pitch,” Tuttle said. “ . . . We kind of like encouraged him to go out there and keep getting better. We talked to him about getting in better shape, losing some weight, getting in the weight room and getting stronger. He started doing all that.
“And it started to click for him midway last year in his junior year . . . Once he got that confidence toward the end of last year, that motivated him to go to another level of his training in the offseason to become the pitcher he was this year.”
Sill went 9-1 in 10 starts with a 0.60 ERA, a 0.71 WHIP, 84 strikeouts and 12 walks in 58 innings. He fired five straight shutouts and had 27 consecutive scoreless innings across six games.
“He’s got a good fastball, good command of his breaking ball,” said Bethpage coach Rob Fisher, whose team lost twice to Sill. “He doesn’t get in trouble by putting guys on base. I think he’s a great pitcher.”
The Old Westbury commit, standing in at about 6-3 and 225 pounds, was great at hitting, too. He was 40-for-84 and finished with a slash line of .476/.596/1.000, 16 doubles, two triples, eight homers and 40 RBIs.
“He could’ve definitely won [a Diamond Award] as a hitter,” Tuttle said, “because his numbers are ridiculous as a hitter.”
