LAPLACE — Brennan Gilberti slept like a baby the night of May 13.

The 17-year-old rising senior at St. Charles Catholic said he had no trouble going to sleep, staying asleep or waking up the next morning. And when he did, he didn’t even feel like throwing up.

“No. I was fine,” he said.

A few hours later, Gilberti insists he was still calm and cool as he took the mound for his team’s biggest game of the year — the Class 2A state championship game against St. Thomas Aquinas.

“It was awesome,” he said.

Well, it wasn’t so awesome when St. Thomas Aquinas rallied from a 1-0 deficit to take a 3-1 win and the state championship trophy. It wasn’t so awesome (at the time) collecting the runner-up trophy instead.

Gilberti, however, drew praise for his performance. He gave up just five hits and struck out two.

It wasn’t so long ago, though, that Gilberti — who is a rather rare single sport athlete at St. Charles — was just an occasional pitcher and not a regular starter.

He did throw a good bit last summer, going 7-0 on the mound for Townsend Homes, the St. Charles-based American Legion team. This summer, he is the ace of the staff as well as the every day third baseman.

Gilberti said he worked hard to get here.

“Last year I knew we were going to make a run, so I figured if I started working I’d have a part in it,” he said. “Well, I was always a part but I wanted to be on the field playing.”

Gilberti started working with teammate and staff ace Zack Roussel to improve his pitching.
“He helped me a lot,” Gilberti said. “We would throw together and he would help me with my off-speed pitches and my location.”

Throughout the prep season, Gilberti improved enough that he got some of the bigger starts as well as some of the big wins. He was on the mound when his team shutout Riverside during the Lutcher tournament. He also notched a win April 7, pitching a 3-hitter and striking out six.

“I wanted it,” Gilberti said.

By the end of the year, Gilberti had improved enough that he gave Comets coach Wayne Stein a dilemma. Stein had to seriously contemplate who would start the semifinal game against Riverside and, if the Comets advanced, who would be left to pitch the next day against St. Thomas Aquinas.

“Obviously he played a major role for us, I mean, he started the state championship game,” Stein said. “He was a guy that we trusted. Every time he pitched last year, we had a chance. It started last summer and kind of set the tone for the season.”

He also learned to play third base well enough that, when Roussel pitched, Gilberti played third.

Now that Roussel has graduated and is now playing summer ball elsewhere, Gilberti has become the full time starter at third — except when he pitches, of course.

What didn’t come so easily to Gilberti, however, was hitting.

As a sometime pitcher, he was never in the lineup.

“It wasn’t because he couldn’t,” Stein said. “There were just guys ahead of him.”

Gilberti said his skills were a little rusty — although he can claim one LSU/Kramer Robinson-like home run.

“It wasn’t out the park,” he explained. “It got stuck under a fence instead of a bench. I hadn’t batted since the summer of my sophomore year. When it’s bases loaded and you’re up to bat with two outs, it’s definitely more pressure than pitching. I hit a lot in the cage and after seeing a lot of pitching, I’m getting better. I haven’t done that bad. I’m still working on it, though.”