Only one gesture was needed for New Mexico Junior College head coach Ray Birmingham to know that Thunderbirds third baseman James Lilley had matured.

When Lilley was struck out in the bottom of the eighth on a called third strike, he just shook his head a little bit and walked back to the dugout.

“A year ago that would have been a temper tantrum after strike one,” Birmingham said.

Lilley has learned to control his emotions and became a legitimate contributor hitting .488 during the regular season and has had two doubles in the tournament so far.

But unlike most players in the tournament, Lilley is no stranger to Grand Junction. He attended Mesa State College last year and was a member of the Mavericks’ baseball team.

Lilley spent the entire season with the club but something didn’t click. The Mavs recruited the Las Cruces, N.M., native as a pitcher and Lilley had his heart set on playing the field and hitting.

“My freshman year I didn’t play as much as I would like,” Lilley said. “Mesa had me pitching. Pitching’s OK but I’d rather hit,”

Feeling like Mesa wasn’t the right fit Lilley knew he had to chance courses.

“I called up Coach B and he said he’d give me the chance to play third,” Lilley said.

He made his way to Hobbs and saw some familiar faces.

Brian Cavazos-Galvez plays center field for the Thunderbirds and faced Lilley in high school.

“James is a real competitive guy,” Cavazos-Galvez said. “He wants to help us so bad he get himself frustrated. It gets to his heart, I can see that with him.”

Birmingham was also familiar with the 2005 New Mexico Gatorade player of the year.

“I am close friends with his uncle and he contacted during the summer,” Birmingham said. “He knew James needed me in his life.”

Lilley shared the same feelings toward Birmingham and New Mexico program.

“Coach B is a great friend of my family, he knows all my uncles, they tell him how to keep me under control,” Lilley said. “He is so supportive of everyone. He will get on you at times but he will be the first one to congratulate you when you do something well.”

Even though Lilley knew Birmingham and had such good credentials, he was not treated any different when he started in the New Mexico program.

“James is an extremely gifted athlete,” Birmingham said. “Like all young kids do, he had to mature.”

One way that Birmingham helped Lilley mature was what he called “an attention getter.”

Lilley was not the every day starter, splitting time with Wade Landowski.

“I get their attention by putting them on the pine,” Birmingham said.

He started 33 games this year but during that time had 25 RBIs, 14 doubles and a .796 slugging percentage.

“Being at New Mexico has taught me to be more comfortable confident in my skills,” Lilley said. “My skills were there, they just needed to be polished, the coaches here have done a great job with every one of us.”

His performance at New Mexico this year has earned Lilley a scholarship to New Mexico State.

Lilley said playing Division I baseball has always been a dream of his.

“I go play D-I, then hopefully pro,” Lilley said. “New Mexico Junior College has been a big stepping stone in my life.”

Lilley’s coach at Mesa State, Chris Hanks, has had a chance to watch his former player and said it is nice to see him succeed at New Mexico.

“It didn’t work out at Mesa,” Hanks said. “But he found his niche at a juco and we always root for our guys and he is still one of our guys.”

The New Mexico coaching staff helped Lilley hone his baseball skills and Lilley was able to return the favor.

He was able to give his teammates some pointers about what it’s like to play at Suplizio field before the Thunderbirds arrived in town.

“I told everyone how the field is going to play,” Lilley said. “The ball flies here. I told them play deep and come in.”

Lilley is hoping his second stop in Grand Junction goes a little better than his first.

“I have one goal,” he said, “which is to win the JUCO World Series.”

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Patrick Bahr can be reached via e-mail at sports@gjds.com.