Colonel Richardson senior Jackie Zebron has accomplished a lot when it comes to baseball. Zebron earned a scholarship to Division II Clarion University in Pennsylvania for his outstanding bat and glove. The centerfielder also guided Colonel Richardson to a Class 1A state championship last spring while leading the team in hitting.
But he’ll face the biggest challenge of his career this spring as the Colonels’ ace pitcher. “There’s a lot falling on me,” Zebron says. “I have to step up.”
Colonel Richardson graduated its top three pitchers. It took a lot of offseason work to prepare Zebron for the starting role, since he didn’t consider himself a very good pitcher. That’s why in the months since, he’s worked hard to change that perception.
Working out with his brother, Jacob, who has pitched the past two summers for the Orioles’ Single-A Gulf Coast League team, elevated his performance level. The Orioles drafted Jacob in the 18th round of the 2018 draft and he went on to post ERAs of 2.97 and 1.31 in his first two minor league seasons. On top of that, he’s emerged as Jackie’s unofficial pitching coach.
“My brother is a great resource,” Jackie says. “He had some of the best stats down there of anybody in his league. He is showing me the things his pitching coach in Florida had him do. He thinks it can really help me. My brother has talked to me about mechanics and having a consistent follow through.”
The brothers had intense two-hour workouts in January and February for three or four days a week. Besides mechanics, they worked on different pitch grips.
The 6-foot-2, 180-pound Jackie also trained with Jamie Evans, a former pitching consultant with the Toronto Blue Jays. Evans’ program is called Velo. “It’s like a weight-ball program to build up velocity,” Jackie explains.
Knowing the extra offseason work Zebron put in, Colonel Richardson Baseball Coach Ryan Blanchfield is confident he’ll be a standout pitcher in 2020.
“He has that drive to get better,” Blanchfield says. “He can really throw strikes and fill it up. He will probably be our hardest thrower. He has decent off-speed pitches, but the most important thing is he throws strikes. He will hit his spots and mix up his off-speed pitches well. He will keep hitters off balance.”
The former center fielder also proved to be a difficult out last spring when he led the team in batting average (.438), RBIs (20), runs (22), and stolen bases (12). Zebron, who batted .345 as a sophomore, only pitched in one game.
“I coach his American Legion team and he is out here at noon during the summer on his own, hitting a ball off a tee,” Blanchfield says. “There’s not that many kids with that type of dedication. He is a speedster and gap-to-gap type of hitter.”
Zebron had some eye-catching games in 2019 in routs over Crisfield (2-2, 4 RBIs) and St. Michaels (2-for-3, 4 RBIs).
But the state championship game is what Zebron and Blanchfield will remember the most.
Zebron clubbed two doubles in the 6-0 win in May over McDonough of Charles County, including a three-run extra base hit that blew the game open. “That’s as clutch a hit as you can have in your baseball career,” Blanchfield says.
Zebron feels he has found the perfect school to continue his baseball career after Colonel Richardson once he graduates. Clarion is out in the country like his current high school. In addition to a rapidly improving baseball skill set, Zebron will take plenty of toughness with him to college, since he started as Colonel Richardson’s quarterback on the football team for two years.
“It’s feels like home,” says Zebron, who carries a 3.5 grade-point average and also received interest from LaSalle University and Saint Peter’s University.
