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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

Aiden Poe has been grabbing headlines and making waves since the moment he began pitching for Vincent.

After guiding the Yellow Jackets to the highs of the Class 2A state championship game in 2023, Poe picked right back up from where he left off and continued to wreak havoc on opposing hitters.

His numbers were unmatched by anyone in the county and many in the state, and as a result, he is the Shelby County Pitcher of the Year for the second time in three seasons.

Poe frequently dominated on the mound in his 16 pitching appearances. He went 12-1 across those appearances and also secured one save.

Much of that success came from his swing-and-miss pitches. Of the 303 batters he faced, he struck out 134 of them, which doubled Chelsea’s Logan Moller’s second-place total of 67 and gave him an average of 11.8 strikeouts per seven innings.

Even more impressive than his strikeout numbers was his command of the strike zone. Poe walked just eight batters and hit only three across the entire season.

Despite pitching a county-high 79.1 innings, he shut down any offensive momentum from the opposing side and allowed just 11 earned runs and 20 runs total as opposing batters hit just .149 off him.

That led to a phenomenal 0.97 ERA and 0.67 WHIP, both of which were near the top of the county even when factoring in low-inning relievers.

Those performances came in big spots against both the top teams in Class 2A and even teams from higher classifications as Poe once again proved he can hang with the top batters in the state.

Poe pitched a county-high six shutouts, including against Class 4A West Blocton and area foes Fayetteville and B.B. Comer.

In addition, three of those shutouts were no-hitters as he was the only pitcher in the county to throw multiple no-hitters this season.

Two of those came in a two-week span against Class 4A Montevallo and Class 5A St. Clair County, and the third came in one of the biggest moments of the year.

After a one-run, 12-strikeout performance against Lindsay Lane in the first round of the playoffs, Poe went on the road to Fyffe and decimated the Red Devils for eight strikeouts in five innings to secure the 10-0 no-hitter victory in Game One.

Then, with Fyffe knocking on the door in Game Two down one in the top of the seventh with the bases loaded, he came in the game and earned three strikeouts in 11 pitches to take his first save of the season and help the Jackets reach the quarterfinals once again.

Poe even put up a strong season at the plate as he batted .393 with 35 hits, 43 RBI and seven doubles across 89 plate appearances for a .557 on-base percentage, .517 slugging percentage and an OPS of 1.074.

Bryson Mormon of Oak Mountain put up a compelling case as well, especially with his streak of 24 straight scoreless innings in the middle of the season, but in the end, Poe proved to be undeniable once again and reclaimed the Pitcher of the Year award.

The scariest part for opposing batters? He still has one season left before he moves on to pitch for the Air Force Academy and can further solidify his case as one of the best pitchers to ever come out of Shelby County.