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Grand Canyon University Athletics
Born to baseball: Wilson becomes top prospect
2/28/2023 10:00:00 AM | Baseball, Paul Coro
GCU shortstop grew up around dad playing MLB, bloomed late on diamonds
Jacob Wilson learned to walk and put a bat to ball at about the same time.
In diapers at 18 months, Jacob scooped up a ball rolled by his father, Jack, who told him, "Be a pitcher."
"He threw a perfect strike," Jack said, recalling Jacob's leg raise. "I was like, 'What? That's weird.'"
The hand-eye coordination was as natural to Jacob as seeing his name on the back of a jersey in a Major League Baseball clubhouse locker at age 5.
The 15 years between throwing out a first pitch before his big-league father's Pittsburgh Pirates game and being named a top-10 MLB draft prospect was not the seamless line of a prodigy.
Before Jacob was knocking seams off baseballs as Grand Canyon's star shortstop, he was a scrawny, overlooked high school player, even with his father's coaching — Jack's 12-year MLB career included being named a 2004 All-Star.
"Watching my Dad play is how I fell in love with the game," said Jacob, whose father retired when he was 10 and became his coach at every level. "I've always tried to compete with him, but he's always been a lot better. Now that I'm older and really focusing, I think I can give him a nice run for his money."
That ascension took more than a father-son bond. As Jack earned a GCU degree online, he met GCU head coach Gregg Wallis and former head coach Andy Stankiewicz, who developed Seattle Mariners minor-leaguers when Jack was a Mariners infielder.
That 2015 breakfast on a Lopes road trip led to Jacob attending a GCU camp six years ago as a 5-foot-9 high school freshman.
"He looks the exact same taking a ground ball and playing catch as he did then," Wallis said. "He's just bigger and stronger now. He went up the middle, gloved a ball, spun and threw it on the chest. I thought, 'We've got to get this kid.' We never knew he would get this good."
After receiving the earliest scholarship offer in GCU's Division I history, Jacob committed to the Lopes on the first day of his sophomore year at Thousand Oaks (California) High School.
Jack told Jacob that a Christian university and the program's style were ideal fits, but there also was divine intervention that summer. On an Arizona trip to Dave and Buster's, Jack and Jacob earned 10,000 tickets and cashed it in for the Tristar Hidden Treasure autographed baseball, per tradition.
This ball was autographed by Tim Salmon, the Lopes' greatest player as a 14-year Major Leaguer, fellow Silver Slugger winner and a 2002 World Series champion.
"You just gotta follow what God's telling you right now," Jack told Jacob.
Jacob hit .205 in his first varsity season with Jack coaching at his high school alma mater, but Wallis remained adamant that the elite defense and bat-to-ball skills made his floor to be a fundamental winning player at GCU – with room for a much higher ceiling.
Jacob grew to 6 feet 2 by his senior year, when the game his father kept fun for his boyhood became a passion.
His high school team featured three younger players who received more notice, including 2021 Oakland Athletics first-round pick Max Muncy. That motivated Jacob to go from a .321-hitting junior to a .583 clip in eight games before COVID-19 halted his senior season.
Jacob started at a new position, third base, as a GCU freshman. His father was "a wreck" initially without coaching him for the first time since he was 9.
"About halfway through the year, I was like, 'He's got this,'" Jack said.
Jacob hit .313 to help GCU to its first NCAA Division I tournament appearance and moved to shortstop last season, when he led the Lopes back to NCAAs as a .358 hitter with 18 doubles, 12 home runs and 65 RBIs.
With seven strikeouts in 275 plate appearances, the Golden Spikes Award semifinalist was the hardest player to strike out in college baseball. He averaged a strikeout per 35.1 at bats. The next-closest ratio with as many at bats was 12.8 to 1. This season, he is off to a .379 hitting start with same slick-fielding, strong-armed fielding.
"The hand-eye has always been there," Jacob said. "Me and my dad always played ping-pong, which was really beneficial. I was never flashy. I tried to do everything right. I was like an old-school player, like my dad was, and like he taught me."
Jacob's profile put him on the USA Baseball national collegiate team last summer, when ESPN rated him as the No. 2 prospect for this July's draft.
"He's never been a guy who got that attention, and now that he does, he's still just Jacob," Jack said. "That's probably what I'm most proud of."
When Wallis became GCU's coach after nine years as an assistant, Jack joined the Lopes staff after coaching under-18 USA Baseball teams in recent years and being at nearly every GCU game last season.
When the Lopes were knocked out of its NCAA regional in Oklahoma last year, Jack and Jacob embraced on the field in tears with no idea they would join forces to surpass that feat this season. Jacob said the memory gives him goosebumps and motivates him to have tears of joy together this season.
"Jacob's stronger, so the ball comes off his bat better," Wallis said. "He already had great strike-zone discipline, but it seems like that maturity has taken another step. Everything he does now looks like a professional player."
In diapers at 18 months, Jacob scooped up a ball rolled by his father, Jack, who told him, "Be a pitcher."
"He threw a perfect strike," Jack said, recalling Jacob's leg raise. "I was like, 'What? That's weird.'"The hand-eye coordination was as natural to Jacob as seeing his name on the back of a jersey in a Major League Baseball clubhouse locker at age 5.
The 15 years between throwing out a first pitch before his big-league father's Pittsburgh Pirates game and being named a top-10 MLB draft prospect was not the seamless line of a prodigy.
Before Jacob was knocking seams off baseballs as Grand Canyon's star shortstop, he was a scrawny, overlooked high school player, even with his father's coaching — Jack's 12-year MLB career included being named a 2004 All-Star.
"Watching my Dad play is how I fell in love with the game," said Jacob, whose father retired when he was 10 and became his coach at every level. "I've always tried to compete with him, but he's always been a lot better. Now that I'm older and really focusing, I think I can give him a nice run for his money."That ascension took more than a father-son bond. As Jack earned a GCU degree online, he met GCU head coach Gregg Wallis and former head coach Andy Stankiewicz, who developed Seattle Mariners minor-leaguers when Jack was a Mariners infielder.
That 2015 breakfast on a Lopes road trip led to Jacob attending a GCU camp six years ago as a 5-foot-9 high school freshman.
"He looks the exact same taking a ground ball and playing catch as he did then," Wallis said. "He's just bigger and stronger now. He went up the middle, gloved a ball, spun and threw it on the chest. I thought, 'We've got to get this kid.' We never knew he would get this good."After receiving the earliest scholarship offer in GCU's Division I history, Jacob committed to the Lopes on the first day of his sophomore year at Thousand Oaks (California) High School.
Jack told Jacob that a Christian university and the program's style were ideal fits, but there also was divine intervention that summer. On an Arizona trip to Dave and Buster's, Jack and Jacob earned 10,000 tickets and cashed it in for the Tristar Hidden Treasure autographed baseball, per tradition.
This ball was autographed by Tim Salmon, the Lopes' greatest player as a 14-year Major Leaguer, fellow Silver Slugger winner and a 2002 World Series champion.
"You just gotta follow what God's telling you right now," Jack told Jacob.Jacob hit .205 in his first varsity season with Jack coaching at his high school alma mater, but Wallis remained adamant that the elite defense and bat-to-ball skills made his floor to be a fundamental winning player at GCU – with room for a much higher ceiling.
Jacob grew to 6 feet 2 by his senior year, when the game his father kept fun for his boyhood became a passion.
His high school team featured three younger players who received more notice, including 2021 Oakland Athletics first-round pick Max Muncy. That motivated Jacob to go from a .321-hitting junior to a .583 clip in eight games before COVID-19 halted his senior season.
Jacob started at a new position, third base, as a GCU freshman. His father was "a wreck" initially without coaching him for the first time since he was 9."About halfway through the year, I was like, 'He's got this,'" Jack said.
Jacob hit .313 to help GCU to its first NCAA Division I tournament appearance and moved to shortstop last season, when he led the Lopes back to NCAAs as a .358 hitter with 18 doubles, 12 home runs and 65 RBIs.
With seven strikeouts in 275 plate appearances, the Golden Spikes Award semifinalist was the hardest player to strike out in college baseball. He averaged a strikeout per 35.1 at bats. The next-closest ratio with as many at bats was 12.8 to 1. This season, he is off to a .379 hitting start with same slick-fielding, strong-armed fielding.
"The hand-eye has always been there," Jacob said. "Me and my dad always played ping-pong, which was really beneficial. I was never flashy. I tried to do everything right. I was like an old-school player, like my dad was, and like he taught me."
Jacob's profile put him on the USA Baseball national collegiate team last summer, when ESPN rated him as the No. 2 prospect for this July's draft."He's never been a guy who got that attention, and now that he does, he's still just Jacob," Jack said. "That's probably what I'm most proud of."
When Wallis became GCU's coach after nine years as an assistant, Jack joined the Lopes staff after coaching under-18 USA Baseball teams in recent years and being at nearly every GCU game last season.
When the Lopes were knocked out of its NCAA regional in Oklahoma last year, Jack and Jacob embraced on the field in tears with no idea they would join forces to surpass that feat this season. Jacob said the memory gives him goosebumps and motivates him to have tears of joy together this season.
"Jacob's stronger, so the ball comes off his bat better," Wallis said. "He already had great strike-zone discipline, but it seems like that maturity has taken another step. Everything he does now looks like a professional player."
ÂJacob Wilson to GCU. The story behind the story.@jacobwilsonn22 | #LopesUp pic.twitter.com/RJDUC0CkW8
— Grand Canyon Baseball (@GCU_Baseball) April 20, 2023
Players Mentioned
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