Owen Vanthillo

• Bats Left, Throws Right
• Height 6' 5", Weight 205 lb.

• School Henderson State University, Western Nebraska Community College

• Born January 31, 2000 in Antwerp Belgium

Biographical Information

Owen Vanthillo followed his father Carl Vanthillo and brother Nick Vanthillo onto the Belgian national team.

He went 0-3 with 7 saves and a 4.84 ERA for Western Nebraska Community College in 2020-2021, leading the conference in saves, then was 1-2 with a save and a 6.28 ERA in 2021-2022. He was 1-0 with two shutout innings for the Hoboken Pioneers in 2022. He was 0-1 with a 6.00 ERA in the 2022 Confederation Cup, losing the title game to the Rouen Huskies. Transferring to Henderson State, he was 1-0 with a 6.84 ERA as a junior and had a save and a 8.04 ERA as a senior.

The big right-hander signed with the Oosterhout Twins in the Netherlands and had a 2.25 ERA in the 2024 Hoofdklasse after the college season ended. In 2025, he was 1-2 with 3 saves and a 3.72 ERA. He tied for 6th in saves (even with Robyn Clara, Mauro van Mook and Kimi Verkruijssen). He then represented Belgium in the 2025 European Championship. He was their best pitcher in their opening loss to Austria. Relieving Zane Hendrickx in the 5th with a 9-3 deficit and one out, he retired Julian Faulhaber and struck out Tobias Werner. Philipp Eckel opened the 6th with a single but Vanthillo got Eoghan McGarry, Moritz Scheicher and Jonas Kreska, the latter two by K. He allowed only an Elias Kreska walk in a scoreless 7th. Belgium had closed it to 9-6 when Ben Van Nuffel entered but Austria scored 7 in the next two innings to run away with it. His other outing was not as good; relieving Van Mook in the 5th with a 1-0 deficit, he yielded a Jantzen Witte double and a Joey Terdoslavich single. Jose Herrera hit a sac fly and Philip Smith walked then Cedric De Smedt replaced him.