Preseason All-American connects with dad at GCU
It’s not much different from when Jacob Wilson was a kid following his baseball dream, watching his dad Jack play for the Pittsburgh Pirates. Now, with the preseason hype machine pumping hard, he’s got his dad in the Grand Canyon dugout.
Not that the junior shortstop needs his dad to keep his ego in check as he gets ready for what figures to be his final college season, with the Major League Baseball draft likely calling his name early.
But there have been so many offseason honors bestowed onhim that it would make anybody’s head spin.
Preseason All-American by five major publications.
Preseason Golden Spikes watch list, an award given to college baseball’s top player.
Voted Preseason WAC Co-Player of the Year.
Named D1Baseball.com’s Top Summer Breakout Prospect. DIBaseball.com’s No. 1 shortstop. A Top 10 Major League Baseball draft projection.
No GCU player has ever been taken among the top 10 picks in the draft. And that includes former Angels star Tim Salmon, who has the GCU Clubhouse named after him.
Wilson doesn’t take his first cut of the season until Friday when the Antelopes, under new head coach Gregg Wallis, opens the season against UC San Diego at 1 p.m., at Scottsdale’s Salt River Fields in the first of four games they will play in the MLB Desert Invitational. GCU will play its first home game Saturday night at 6 p.m., against Tennessee in a game that is already sold out.
GCU is playing on the MLB Network three times this weekend.
But the even-keeled Wilson takes all of this in stride.
“I think it’s cool,” Jacob said of all of the accolades. “It’s preseason stuff. I still got a year to go out and play. I’m not too worried about it. I’m just going to go out there and try to win.”
GCU could have lost Wilson in the offseason to the transfer portal. He entered it with uncertainty not knowing who would take over as head coach after Andy Stankiewicz left to become the USC coach. Stankiewich led the Lopes to two straight NCAA Tournament berths.
Wallis, who had assisted in the program since 2014 and became the recruiting coordinator in 2016, had left for Ohio State to be an assistant recruiting coordiator after th 2022 season. Wallis was lured back after Lopes offered him head coach job.
“Some guys decided to to into the portal as precautionary,” Jacob said. “We really wanted Wally (Wallis) back just because of the relationship we built with him, growing up through high school and he was recruiting us. The relationship we built when we were here with him.
“It was really a relief when Wally got hired back. Everybody decided we wanted to come back.”
Wallis hired Jack Wilson to be an assistant.
Sincer his playing career ended, Jack Wilson coached high school baseball at Thousand Oaks, California and was involved in Team USA Baseball. An MLB All-Star in 2004 as a shortstop with the Pittsburgh Pirates, having his best season with 201 hits, 12 triples, 11 home runs and a .308 batting average, Jack can help keep things in perspective for his son.
He was in the stands last year when the 6-foot-3, 190-pound Jacob Wilson hit 12 home runs, was a semifinalist in the Golden Spikes and blew it up in the summer playing in Cape Cod League and for the USA Baseball Collegiate National Team.
“Just play the game,” Jack tells his son. “The draft is nothing you can control. Whether somebody likes you and drafts you, you have no control over how they feel about you. All you can control is being here every day, helping your team win, get better and let the chips fall where they may.”
Wallis said that Wilson makes such quality contact in his at-bats that his power translates. He’s got an elite glove, as well. That’s part of what pro scouts see in him.
“He’s got elite tools,” Wallis said. “Elite ability to make contact. Elite ability to play shortstop. Arm strength. There’s elite tools. And there’s peformance history. He’s performed his freshman year, his freshman summer, his sophomore year, his sophomore summer.”
Now it’s time to turn it on again and see if he can help the Lopes get to the next level, a Super Regional, after being swept out of the last two regionals.
“We’re really pumped to get going,” Jacob said. “We want to get back to that, even further.” the the