Despite Shivers, He Delivers : Ex-Harbor Standout Warms to Big 10 Baseball

There was snow on the baseball field at the University of Illinois on May 6, and Willy Parsons, the Illini second baseman, looked at it and shook his head.

“I expected it to be cold here, but that was a little shocking,” said Parsons, a former Harbor College and El Segundo High standout.

Parsons and his teammates have been snowed out three times this season. They have played in 20-degree weather with a wind-chill factor of below zero. They didn’t play their first home game until April 5 because there was up to a foot of snow on the Illini baseball field until April Fools’ Day.

It was enough to make Parsons long for old times. Even the night games at Redondo, with the icy wind blowing off the ocean, didn’t seem so bad in retrospect.

“I’ll never complain about those games again,” he said.

Actually, Parsons, a junior, has little to complain about. He may have lost his tan, but he still has a high batting average--.341. He may have shivered, but he has also delivered.

The junior leads the Illini with 15 runs scored, and he’s stolen 31 bases in 38 attempts. He’s hit three home runs and driven in 28 runs, and he is one of the main reasons the Illini are in the NCAA Regionals.

Illinois (41-14) lost to Penn (28-9), 7-1, on Thursday (28-9) in the Northeast Regional at Waterbury, Conn.. The other teams in the double-elimination tourney, which ends Sunday, are top-seeded Arkansas (46-13), LeMoyne (25-5), Arizona State (40-17) and George Washington (30-22).

Parsons sparked Illinois to a 2-0 victory over Michigan in the championship game of the Big 10 Tournament, a victory that clinched a berth in the regionals for the Illini. He went 15 for 15 in the tournament.

Illinois Coach Augie Garrido pulled off a coup when he lured Parsons to Urbana for his junior season.

Parsons set school records in hits and stolen bases at El Segundo and was named The Times’ South Bay Player of the Year in 1986. He holds nine school records at Harbor and set the state community college mark of 54 stolen bases in 58 attempts.

So it wasn’t a question of whether Parsons would produce at a major college, but where .

When Garrido, who coached Cal State Fullerton to two national titles in 15 years, took the job at Illinois after the 1987 season, Parsons knew where he would go.

“I had admired him for a long time,” Parsons said. “When he said he was interested in me, there was no other choice. It was the best choice I’ve made. He has been everything I expected and more.”

Garrido promised Illinois a national championship in five years. In 1988, the Illini went only 26-20, but Garrido cashed in on his influence in California last year and plucked several blue-chip recruits from the Southland baseball crop--including Parsons and seven Orange County players.

When they arrived in Urbana, Parsons and his fellow Californians were due for a shock. During the winter, the Illini baseball team practices under a dome that covers the football field.

And even though Garrido sought the installation of a $1.5-million artificial turf, the Illini still play on natural grass--once the snow melts.

“I thought we’d never get to play on our field,” Parsons said. “And then we only play on it for a month, so it’s kind of hard to call it our home field.”

So this season, the Illini became college baseball’s version of the Road Warriors.

They left their thermal wear in Illinois, packed up traveling grays and headed for tournaments in Nevada, Texas, Kentucky and Florida--anywhere the sun was shining and the sky wasn’t snowing.

The team flew to three of those destinations. They took a bus to Kentucky. Garrido wants his players to get a taste of traveling, minor-league style.

“He’s a firm believer in bus rides,” said Parsons, who survived the 14-hour round trip drive to Ann Arbor for a series against Michigan. “He wants it done the way it’ll be done in the future.”

The long bus rides haven’t dimmed Parsons’ enthusiasm for the game. He was a third-team All Big 10 selection even though he split time between second base and shortstop this season.

Parsons started the season at shortstop, the position he played at El Segundo. But an injury to Illinois catcher Sean Mulligan forced second baseman Mark Dalesandro behind the plate. So the versatile Parsons shifted to second--his position at Harbor.

He even played one game in right field, when center fielder Kevin O’Connor was ejected after a brawl.

Parsons, who has not been drafted, hopes his versatility will impress the professional scouts. He’ll forfeit his senior season if drafted in June.

“I don’t want to lose a year of minor league experience,” Parsons said. “I feel like I’m ready for pro ball now.”