Three Hillier matches father's playoff feat as Ice Haulers win first-ever postseason game

PERKINS TWP. — With two runners on in the fifth inning, Ice Haulers catcher Three Hillier battled against the same-sided matchup of Lima's lefty starter, Jonathan Machamer. A ball, then a strike, followed by two foul balls and two pitches out of the zone. By the time Machamer threw the seventh pitch of the at bat, Hillier was locked in. The catcher from Liberty didn't miss Machamer's fastball and laced it up and beyond the right field fence for a three-run home run. Sandusky Bay couldn't pull away from Lima before that swing, but afterward, Monday night was all about the Ice Haulers and Hillier. "He fouled some pitches off and stayed in there on it," Ice Haulers manager Bill Clay said, "and when he got his pitch he turned on it and hit it hard. He's had a really good summer." Three Hillier — three run home run 💣 The Ice Haulers quickly move ahead 7-2 in the bottom of the fifth as the @LibertyBaseball catcher goes deep for his third time this summer. @GLSCL pic.twitter.com/87BG0tD63O — Billy Heyen (@BillyHeyen) July 27, 2021 Hillier was at the heart of Sandusky Bay's 11-5 playoff win over the Lima Locos at Sports Force Parks. He finished with three hits and a walk to go with six runs batted in and two runs scored. Hillier also worked with ace Landon Smiddy (East Tennessee State) through six innings of two-run ball. The victory in Game 1 of a three-game set gives the Ice Haulers a chance to advance to the championship series when they take the field Tuesday night in Lima. All the action happened with Hillier's father in attendance for the first time all summer, making the trip up from Asheville, North Carolina. "It is a good luck charm for me," Hillier said. "The only hit I got in the college baseball season was when he was there." Back in the mid-90s, Bill Hillier Jr. played for the Sandusky Bay Stars in the Great Lakes Summer Collegiate League with current Ice Haulers GM Ray Neill as his coach. A left-handed batter, like his son, Bill hit a home run against the Lima Locos in the playoffs during his time with the Bay Stars. About a quarter century later, Bill made the nine-hour drive from Asheville to Sandusky for the chance to watch two playoff games before heading back south. He had yet to see Bill Hillier III — Three — play this summer, although he'd heard a lot about some of the most notable Ice Haulers, like Scott Mackiewicz and Grayson Thurman. Bill was at Sports Force Parks first and foremost to see his son, though, and Hillier didn't disappoint. After grounding out in the second, Hillier singled into right field in the third. Two batters later, Hillier was sliding headfirst into home with a go-ahead run. "To see a dude like that who plays the game with so much heart, doing well with the bat, too, is just great," Smiddy said. "A lot of energy came from him tonight." Hillier's biggest blow, the three-run blast, came an inning later. Runners were on second and third after a Mark Connelly (Lansing CC) sacrifice bunt, and Hillier was only focused on getting the runner in from third. What happened next, Hillier described as, "(I) just got lucky." But really, he turned on a fastball over the heart of the plate and yanked it deep into the night sky in right, a frozen rope turned home run. "It felt very good," Hillier said. "… It felt good to get the lead right there." The magic number three followed Hillier an inning later, too. With a full count and two outs with the bases loaded, runners took off with the pitch. Unlike his first three at bats, in which Hillier pulled the ball, he stayed through the full-count pitch to line it to left center. With the runners in motion, all three scored. "I guess I kept my head on it and hit it well," Hillier said. All of Hillier's exploits at the plate ensured that Smiddy's quality start would hold up. The hard-throwing righty struggled with his mechanics early, he said, and he gave up a home run to TJ Reeves (Jacksonville State) to fall behind 2-1. From that point on, though, Smiddy "locked in," he said, including striking out the side in the fourth and not allowing another run through his sixth and final inning. "Landon didn't have his best stuff tonight, but he's that kinda guy, if he doesn't have his best stuff, he's gonna battle you," Clay said. The Ice Haulers handed the last three innings to Wesley Arrington (Lynchburg). He was added to the Sandusky Bay roster on the deadline day of making such additions, and he made his debut Saturday with a scoreless frame. Monday in the playoff opener, Harrington lasted three innings to earn a save. "He came out here today and we had a big lead and his job was just to throw strikes, and that's what he did," Clay said. Bill will join the Ice Haulers in Lima tomorrow before he returns home, where he'll help his wife take care of two younger sons. But that will be better than nothing for Hillier, who said after Monday's game, "Hopefully he keeps coming." Sandusky Bay will have to take care of a potential championship series without Hillier's father, but Hillier may feel the Ice Haulers' chances of reaching that point are higher with his dad sticking around one more day. "I just seem to play better when he's here," Hillier said.