All-First Coast baseball | Aidan King's journey to strikeout royalty at Bishop Snyder

A June birthday meant something a little different for Aidan King.

A few more challenges while climbing his way up the youth baseball ladder. Years of growing up against opponents a few months older and sometimes a few inches taller, with a little more zip on their pitches and a little more punch on their hits.

"I just find it fun to prove people wrong," he said.

The one-time underdog is now Florida's strikeout king.

The Bishop Snyder senior has grown into a University of Florida-bound pitching ace, a top-20 standout on the national strikeout leaderboard and the Times-Union's All-First Coast player of the year for high school baseball.

The numbers? Simply staggering.

King led the Sunshine State in strikeouts with 144 while walking only 10 batters, remaining in single digits in the BB column until the Cardinals' last game against Trinity Christian. His strikeouts tied for 15th on the national MaxPreps charts.

He sliced buzzsaw-style through batting orders with a 10-1 record and a 1.06 earned run average, all while leading Bishop Snyder to the most single-season victories in school history (20) and its deepest run in the Florida High School Athletic Association playoffs to date.

For longtime Bishop Snyder coach Zach Osbeck, it all added up to an unforgettable four-year stay for King on the Westside school's varsity squad.

"I don't know if we'll see anyone like that again," Osbeck said.

20 STRIKEOUTS: A NIGHT TO REMEMBER

On May 8, King's right arm wrote a pitching line for the ages in Jacksonville high school baseball: 7-1-0-0-0-20.

King was already on the state radar even before his first-round regional playoff in Class 3A against Providence, but that performance instantly launched him into viral sensation territory.

How else to describe 20 strikeouts in a one-hit shutout against one of Jacksonville's perennial postseason contenders?

"People were telling me 17, 18 strikeouts, and I was like, 'That's crazy,'" he said. "It's almost like people are messing with me when they tell me I'm close to 20 strikeouts… it was an unreal feeling."

The pitching performance wasn't even his only highlight of the night, which also included a home run in the third inning and an RBI double in the fifth. Bishop Snyder won 3-0, and the legend of 20 strikeouts was on.

That win, followed up with a stunning upset of No. 1 Pensacola Catholic in which King batted but didn't pitch, helped the Cardinals to a first-ever regional final and their first-ever 20-win season.

VELOCITY WITH CONTROL

Aidan King throws hard, and in the age of velocity in the 2020s, that's no surprise. Throwing baseballs, after all, is something he's been doing all his life.

"My mom told me if I could get my hands on anything, I was going to either swing it or throw it," he said. "So I knew I was going to play basball."

But throwing is one thing. Learning to pitch is another.

For King, lessons that particularly hit home started early when learning from veteran Jacksonville coach Chris Crawford. Managing pitch totals. Staying away from bad counts. Mastering the art of location, location, location.

The basic message, King recalls: "Your velocity's going to be there, but the key is location. Even if it's 95, someone's going to hit it if it's right down the middle. And there's no defense for a walk."

By the time he arrived at Bishop Snyder, his accuracy already stood out. After walking 19 batters in 49 1/3 innings as a freshman, he reduced his walk count each season to 13 in 2022, 12 in 2023 and 10 this year. He's maintained his touch even as his velocity has picked up: After arriving at Snyder in the upper 70s, he now consistently hits the 92-94 range with his fastballs.

"Most of the time, kids have that velocity jump and then they start walking more guys," Osbeck said. "That was never the case with him because of his control."

UNDERDOG MENTALITY

King made the Bishop Snyder roster as a freshman without prototypical size — by his recollection, he stood 5-5 and 137 pounds when entering high school — but plenty of determination.

"I was a small kid, but I just went out there thinking I'm going to beat everyone," said King, who's now listed with more typical pitcher dimensions at 6-2, 180.

In King's freshman year, Osbeck said, the young pitcher got a choice of which opponent to face during a midseason week of action. King didn't hesitate: He wanted to take on Bolles, a lineup loaded with future NCAA athletes like Jackson Baumeister, Jackson Mayo and Sully Brackin.

He gave up six runs that night, but he made a statement: No matter what, he wasn't about to duck a challenge.

"We'd throw him against the Providences and the Trinitys," Osbeck said, "and he would battle his tail off."

King credits former Bishop Snyder catcher Nick Wrubluski, who later signed with Jacksonville University and just completed his sophomore year at St. Johns River State College, with helping him adjust to high school baseball on and off the field.

"I was grateful for him, because I didn't know what I was doing as a freshman coming into high school," King said. "He helped teach me how Bishop Snyder plays and how to respect the game."

THE NEXT STEP?

By now, King has delivered rock-bottom ERAs in four years at Bishop Snyder: 1.99 as a freshman, 1.73 as a sophomore, 2.09 as a junior and 1.06 this year, with a combined 209 walks and hits allowed in his 221 1/3 innings of work.

"We knew exactly what we were going to get," Osbeck said. "That was the amazing part of Aidan, just the consistency. We knew he was going to give us six or seven innings, always with a chance to win."

What's next? Like scores of other high school prospects nationwide, King could face a decision in the coming weeks between college baseball and the professional game. A longtime Gators fan, he already has a college baseball future signed, sealed and delivered with Florida if he chooses.

"I've always been a Gator," he said. "The knowledge that the coaches have there, [Kevin] O'Sullivan, Chuck [Jeroloman], [David] Kopp, and the success they have with pitchers like Brady Singer, Dane Dunning, a ton of people."

Still, after his senior-year performance, there's also the chance that King could receive a call in next month's MLB Draft from a team interested in his combination of control and strikeout potential.

Whether his near-term future lies in Gainesville or in the professional game, he's not finished working to improve his craft. It's the same drive that's carried him from underdog to strikeout king.

"I want to become near-perfect at pitching," he said.

ALL-FIRST COAST BASEBALL PLAYER OF THE YEAR

Aidan King

Senior, Bishop Snyder

Age: 18

Resume : Finished 10-1 with a 1.06 ERA and a state-leading 144 strikeouts. … Walked only 10 batters all season. … Also batted .300 with seven doubles and two homers. … Helped Bishop Snyder to first-ever regional final. … Tallied 368 career strikeouts at Bishop Snyder and walked 20 or fewer batters in every season. … Named first-team All-State by Prep Baseball Report . … Signed with Florida.

This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: All-First Coast baseball | Aidan King's journey to strikeout royalty at Bishop Snyder