At 6 feet 4 inches tall with a 96 mph fastball, Jacob Young is loaded with talent. Enough talent to earn him a scholarship to one of the top baseball programs in the country, without even throwing a varsity pitch.
It’s a very unique circumstance, but Young has lost the last two seasons to injury and most likely loses this year’s season to, yes, coronavirus.
Young’s high school baseball career got off to a solid start as he pitched for JV as a freshman, performing well. However, in October 2017, things took a turn. Young had a torn UCL that went undiagnosed for months. When he got an evaluation on his elbow, he was told that after 12 weeks of rest he would be okay to resume pitching. At first, it seemed like everything was normal, before tearing his UCL again just one month later.
“The first doctor I went to told me to find a new sport and that I would never play baseball again. I decided to get a second opinion so we went to Beacon Orthopedics in Batesville, IN. There I had Tommy John surgery that was performed by the Cincinnati Reds team doctor,” said Young.
The surgery was successful, but would keep Young away from pitching for the next 14-15 months, nullifying his sophomore and junior seasons. He would spend those two seasons rehabbing, eagerly watching South’s games from the dugout.
Things would finally start to look up in the summer of 2019, when Young participated in a tournament with his travel team, the Indiana Expos. This is where he would gain the attention of colleges, earning offers from Indiana State, Northern Illinois, Northern Alabama, USC Upstate, and Dallas Baptist.
“That one tournment really helped me get noticed. The funny thing is that the colleges were there to scout other guys playing in the tournament, and they noticed me.”
On Aug. 19, 2019, Young would commit to Dallas Baptist University, which would even help him land on the MLB radar as he garnered some attention from the Texas Rangers.
This spring, Young was slated to be South’s ace before the sudden COVID-19 pandemic. Fortunately, he has a college and potential MLB career ahead of him, but his situation will go down as one of the most unfortunate oddities in sports history.
“It sucks. I’ve been hungry to just get out there and play. All I’ve been thinking about the past few months is getting on the mound at Bart Kaufman Field and beating North. I think we could’ve gone far.”
