Today’s look at an elite freshman takes us to Arizona where we profile a great student-athlete who had interest from all over the nation, including Big Ten and SEC schools, but when the right Pac-12 program came calling, she quickly pulled the trigger!

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Name: JESSICA LYNCH
High School: Corona Del Sol
City: Chandler
State: Ariz.
Grad year: 2018
Club: Firecrackers AZ – Hinkle 16U
Position(s): P/1B
GPA: 4.0
Height: 5-9

Club Stats: 2014-2015 fall/winter season – pitched 107 innings, 1.29 ERA with 155 K’s (1.45 K’s per inning); batting average of .487 with .585 on-base percentage
Club Accomplishments: finished top 10 at PGF Nationals, placed 5^th at the TCS Sparkler; 2013 – won the 16U and 14U USSSA Arizona state championships

Pitches: Jessica throws a two-seam fastball, drop, curve, change up, screwball and a rise, which is her money pitch.  She puts in a lot of work on locating her pitches.

Overcoming Obstacles: in her second year of 14U, Jessica had a grounder take a bad hop and ended up with a hairline fracture of the index finger on her pitching hand.  She refused to sit out even though she had an aluminum splint on her finger for five weeks.  She continued pitching with good success.  In one particular game, which was her second game in bracket play, she pitched a shutout in spite of the splint.

Off the Field: Jessica helps special needs students through her school and participates in a peer tutoring program.

“During my last year of middle school, I had the opportunity to participate in a class that helped special needs children,” Jessica explains. “This was a great experience. I felt that these kids were amazing.  They were always so happy and willing to learn. I would read and do activities with them.  They had a song that helped them learn the days of the week, counting and other learning activities.”

“Not only did they work on learning, but they did fun things like having carnivals with other special needs children from other schools.  I was really inspired by these kids.  When I came to class they were just so excited to see me and show me what they were working on.  Whatever they worked on they were very proud of it.  I was very glad that I had the opportunity to interact with these special kids.”

College: committed to Arizona State in November
Other Schools Interested: Arizona, Grand Canyon, Kentucky, Ohio State, Ole Miss, Utah, Utah State, Virginia.

How ASU Found Her:

As told by her grandfather, Kent Amerman, who writes: “I started playing catch with Jess when she was three and when we were at her sister’s games I had to throw grounders and pop-ups to her and try to watch the game at the same time!”

“ASU first noticed Jessica when they attended the Colorado Sparkler tournament.  While watching their 2017 commit on Jessica’s team (Bella Loomis), they noticed Jessica.  After Colorado, they started to watch Jessica at all of the showcase tournaments.  They were impressed with both her potential and progress over the next several months.”

“In early October, when Jessica was still 14 years old, she was asked to fill in on the Firecrackers 18U team for a double header against a local community college.  Jessica pitched three shutout innings in each game.”

“Apparently, this performance was enough to convince ASU that they should go to the next level and invite Jessica to an unofficial visit where she got to meet the coaches and take a tour of the campus and all of the facilities.”

“She attended their camp in November where they did a further evaluation.  After the camp, they asked Jessica and her parents to stay for further discussion with the head coach.  That was when they extended an offer.  She was so impressed with the school and what it had to offer that she couldn’t think of going anywhere else, so she accepted.  Her career goal is forensic science and ASU has a good program in that field.”

“When she first started the recruiting process, other D-1 colleges were looking at her which was exciting and all she could think of was going out of state.  When ASU started showing interest in her, she realized how cool it would be to play at home with all of her friends and family here to cheer her on.  Finally, one important thing that really convinced Jessica about ASU was when she met all of the coaching staff.”