By ALEC ETHEREDGE | Sports Editor

Jackson Kimbrell has the potential to be a Major League Baseball draft pick, and a high one at that. Already signed to play collegiate baseball at Ole Miss, the future is bright for the Oak Mountain standout.

The senior pitcher, however, isn’t focused on any of that.

After last year’s heart break to Bob Jones in the first round of the playoffs after winning game one and holding a five-run lead in the rubber game, all he is fixated on is leading the Eagles to a state championship with his 18 senior teammates during Oak Mountain’s 20th season with a baseball team.

“We ended the season really badly last year,” Kimbrell said. “We felt bad for a while, but this year is a different year. This is our 20th year having a baseball program at Oak Mountain and we talk about that a lot. Our motto is Team20. We’re going to try and learn from last year’s mistakes, and make sure we represent the school and each other instead of ourselves.”

It was a tough end to a season where the Eagles were at one point ranked nationally after winning 14 consecutive games to start the season.

Kimbrell said the team got in its head thinking too much about trying to be too perfect instead of just playing the game, and now they’re putting it behind them in an amnesia state of mind.

“Now it’s just about loving the game with good friends again,” Kimbrell said. “We all grew up together and are just passionate for the sport and want to enjoy this last ride we have together. It’ll almost be like we are kids again.”

Growing up with a passion

Kimbrell started playing the game of baseball at the age of four when his dad signed him up to play at Heardmont Park, but before that, he said he was already throwing in the yard with his dad before he could even walk—a good trait for a future successful pitcher.

“I immediately fell in love with the game,” Kimbrell said. “I used to play football, but baseball has always been my favorite sport to play.”

A big reason for that was the influence of his dad, who instilled a passion for the game into his son at a young age.

“He’s really taught me everything I know about baseball,” Kimbrell said. “We would always go up to the Spain Park rec fields to throw and hit growing up, and there were so many times he didn’t to go up there and he’d act mad at me, but then when I didn’t want to go, he’d take me up there anyways.”

Kimbrell said they just always had fun, and mentioned rough football games in the yard where his dad would just through him in the street during a friendly game, and his mom would come out yelling at him to go easy on him, but Kimbrell laughed and got right back up to try and one up his dad.

He also mentioned his driveway of all places being key to his early success in the game. He had a sloped driveway at his house in Inverness and learned how to pitch in the driveway at a young age.

During his middle school days, Kimbrell joined the Oak Mountain seventh grade team, before being an important part of the eighth-grade team that won the metro tournament, alongside many of the same players he’ll take the field with one final time this season.

But following his eighth-grade season came a major obstacle.

Adversity with shoulder surgery

Kimbrell missed out on both his freshman and sophomore seasons at Oak Mountain because of injury, eventually having to have surgery on his left shoulder, which is his throwing arm, due to an injury suffered playing football.

“That was a difficult thing to handle and overcome,” he said. “I think the plan was for me to be on the varsity team as a sophomore, but now I went into my junior season without coach (Derek) Irons having seen me at that level. He had heard a lot about me, but hadn’t seen me pitch until then, so that was very difficult.”

The thing Kimbrell had going for him was summer ball. He was able to rehab by competing over the summer prior to his junior season, which helped him feel more prepared once the following spring actually arrived.

“Once coach understood how I pitched and we understood each other better, as the season progressed last year, we got a lot closer and it helped me improve throughout the year,” Kimbrell said.

He didn’t just improve throughout the year. Kimbrell quickly became one of the state’s best high school baseball players just one year removed from shoulder surgery.

During his junior season, Kimbrell, along with three other seniors, was named as an All-County First Team pitcher after posting a 6-3 record that featured a remarkable 96 strikeouts and an ERA of 2.53. He also posted two shutouts and allowed just 34 hits and 20 runs in 55.1 innings pitched. His strikeout to inning ratio was the highest of anybody in the county, including several SEC committed pitchers.

But that wasn’t enough.

After the 14-0 start and national recognition, Oak Mountain went 13-12 the rest of the season before that difficult first-round loss in the playoffs, something Kimbrell doesn’t want to replicate again.

Closing it out

As pitchers have to do in many situations, Kimbrell hopes he can help his Oak Mountain team close out this year, like a pitcher trying to close out a game.

While he’s excited about the opportunity of continuing to play baseball at a high level once he gets to Ole Miss, that’s the furthest thing from his mind going into the 2019 season, which is going to be key.

“Last year we may have had a few guys looking to their next stop and thinking about life after Oak Mountain before the season was even done,” Kimbrell said. “We have a lot of talent on this year’s team, and many will be playing at the next level, but we are committed to focusing on this year and not thinking about anything but being good teammates this season.”

With 18 seniors, three juniors and two preseason high school All-Americans, including Kimbrell and Landon Cato, this team has the talent to win a state championship with a deep bullpen and plenty of pop at the plate.

While the talent is there, the focus isn’t necessarily on that, it’s on holding themselves accountable and not changing what they do.

“Last year, we let the recognition and success go to our heads and started pressing too much,” Kimbrell said. “This year, we have put ourselves in pressure situations during practice and are ready to handle things and not waiver. Our main goal is to hold each other accountable.”

Kimbrell said the team is focused on being mentally strong and being happy for one another.

“If you go 4-4 at the plate and we lose and you’re happy, that’s not OK,” Kimbrell said. “Likewise, if you go 0-4 and we win and you’re mad, that’s not good either. Same with me on the mound. I used to get mad if I was pitching bad, but now I realize it’s more about the team. That’s been our whole message going into this year.”

Kimbrell then talked about how special this team was going to be.

“Nobody ever gets mad at each other, nobody really ever fights, we have a positive energy and hold each other accountable,” he said. “We’re going to put it all out there and enjoy these moments and our last season together.”