Giants’ 2025 first-rounder hits first pro homer … then walks it off with his second!
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There was a lot that was new for Gavin Kilen on Friday night.
A new season. A new club at a new level. A new feeling, one that comes with taking a first trip around the bases after a home run as a professional. And then finally, a new rush that came with his second homer -- a walk-off two-run shot that tied the knot on a remarkably clutch night for the Giants’ No. 5 prospect during his inaugural High-A salvo.
That Kilen would be emphatically flipping his bat and running into a sea of his teammates at home plate by night’s end seemed unlikely as Eugene trailed 6-0 entering the fifth. But the Emeralds, who were last seen falling in the 2025 Northwest League Finals, stormed back in their ‘26 season debut for an 8-6 win at PK Park.
Kilen’s first roundtripper came in the fifth off right-hander Joangel Gonzalez, who left a 1-2 heater in the center of the plate. Hillsboro catcher Alberto Barriga knew it the moment Kilen made impact -- the 2025 first-rounder had ripped his first pro homer.
Right after the Giants selected Kilen 13th overall last July out of Tennessee, he knew the book was out on him as a hitter -- top-tier bat-to-ball skills? Check. But the power? That would be the determining factor of his ceiling in pro ball.
“This year,” Kilen said right after the Draft, “it was kind of the switch of, ‘Alright, you can make good contact, but let’s try and hit for -- not necessarily more power, but let’s put yourself in better counts to do more damage.’”
Damage he certainly did Friday.
While there’s a lot new in pro ball, sometimes it helps to see an arm you’ve seen before. Or maybe even hit a home run off in the not-too-distant past. That opportunity presented itself in the ninth when righty Sawyer Hawks, a sixth-round pick of the D-backs, took the mound.
Kilen and Hawks got familiar with one another in 2025 during the famed Tennessee/Vanderbilt rivalry. The one game they faced off -- May 10 -- saw Kilen pop a pull side homer off Hawks. When the 6-foot-4 hurler pumped a 1-0 fastball this go-round, Kilen was waiting.
A true no-doubter off the bat, Kilen immediately flipped his bat and enjoyed watching it fly before circling the bags.
Kilen got into 10 games for Single-A San Jose last year after signing, but a bruised hip ended his year prematurely. He appeared in seven Cactus League contests for the Giants as a late-inning replacement this spring, but his time rubbing elbows with big leaguers also allowed him to be reunited with his Tennessee head coach Tony Vitello, now making history in the San Francisco dugout.
“He reminds me of Ian Kinsler a lot,” Vitello said of Kilen in March. “He’s a killer on the field, and I think he's got an intensity about him that the organization was looking for.”