CLEMSON – After a long, grueling day of cutting out shapes and learning the alphabet, most pre-school aged children unwind with cartoons, a nap, and a well-deserved peanut butter and jelly sandwich. After all, mastering addition and subtraction requires some downtime.

But four-year-old Jacob Jarrell was never one for post-school rest.

Instead, Clemson’s now-senior catcher spent his preschool afternoons listening to the ding of softball bats and breathing in the smell of freshly shorn spring grass while his mom ran practices five hours east of Upstate South Carolina. 

The Florence, S.C., native’s mother, Melissa Jarrell, served as the head softball coach at UNC Wilmington from 2002-08 and as a result, extracurricular time in Jarrell’s younger years was spent at UNCW’s Boseman Field.

“I kind of grew up around the field,” Jacob Jarrell said. “I would go to preschool and end up back at the field after preschool. So, I was always just around the facility.” 

Jarrell credits his mother – who was South Florence High School’s Softball MVP in three consecutive seasons and a captain at the University of North Carolina – for instilling a work ethic that does not blink at the prospect of getting extra reps before class and after practice.

Clemson’s Doug Kingsmore Stadium, which is catty-cornered from softball’s McWhorter Stadium, is where he feels most at home. Naturally, extra reps on the diamond come easily. 

After all, Jarrell watched softball drills before most peers understood the concept of sports.

“Not only to get a starting catcher that hits 15 home runs, but a leader with a work ethic like JJ, his work ethic is second to none,” head coach Erik Bakich said. “And so to get a guy back like that, to the point about senior leadership, that’s just as valuable as double digit homers and being able to really handle a pitching staff defensively.”

That work ethic helped Jarrell go from hitting 11 combined home runs in his first two years with the Tigers to a team-high 15 last season. Additionally, in his career, Jarrell started 110 games, leading all players in games started at Clemson.

In 15 years, Jarrell transformed from the three-foot-tall pre-schooler sitting in the dugout, watching softball players grow and mature under his mother’s leadership, to being one of the most improved and tenured for the Tigers. 

Still, it all feels the same to Jarrell. A ballfield is a ballfield.

“It’s just like when I was a kid, I was back at the facility, hanging out with the coaches, hanging out with the players,” he said. “It’s kind of like déjà vu. Now I’m older and now I just live here (at the field) and work out with all the guys, it’s pretty fun.”

Jarrell is now one of only four players on his team to play through all of Bakich’s tenure at Clemson, dating back to the 2022-23 season, in which the Tigers hosted an NCAA Regional Tournament for the first time since 2018. 

Since then, the Tigers have hosted two more regionals and a Super Regional in 2024, but have fallen short of a College World Series berth each year. In Jarrell’s junior season, Clemson lost to West Virginia and Kentucky as a Regional host, resulting in an abrupt elimination.

“It definitely left a sour taste in our mouth,” Jarrell said of last season’s conclusion. “I just remember walking in the locker room and everybody was just mad. We were like ‘that’s not what we were capable of.’ And I think this year we definitely have that in the back of our minds, but you know, rearview mirror, front mirror, like you’re kind of looking ahead and you’re not so much worried about what happened, you’re worried about the future.”

That mindset became even more important when the former fifth-ranked high school catcher in South Carolina did not hear his name called on MLB Draft Day, after being dubbed the No. 67 ACC prospect in the preseason. 

Many fans, baseball outlets, and even Bakich himself, expected Jarrell to be selected last July. 

But as the summer faded, it became clear that the veteran would return to Clemson for his final year.

Again, it was time to look ahead.

“So what?” Jarrell said “We have a lot of sayings in here and ‘so what?’ (means) just move on,” he said. “I was thinking about last year and reflecting on what our team could have done better and I was happy that I was able to come back and then also contribute to the team. This place is amazing.”

Jarrell embraces several “Bakich-isms,” including “so what?” and “do boring well,” but his favorite saying from Clemson’s skipper is “go for no.”

Along with the other three-word, three-syllable adages, “go for no,” to Clemson players, means taking a risky chance in a crucial situation for a potential payoff.

“(Bakich) throws it in there especially when we’re playing or when we have meetings during the game, he’ll be like, ‘Hey, we just need to go for no right here,’” he said. “Like, maybe we need to lay down a bunt, we need to score some runs, we need to get some guys on, we need to score. Let’s go for no.”

Jarrell himself is “going for no” this season, as he takes one last collegiate opportunity to improve himself and pilot the Tigers after disappointing endings in the last few seasons. 

One thing is sure, however, stepping onto a baseball field will never be a risky choice for the former pre-schooler that learned phonics and hitting techniques simultaneously. Jarrell has spent more time in Doug Kingsmore Stadium than nearly anyone on his team, and will soon take on the “so what’s” that his final season and opposing pitchers throw his way.

Jarrell and No. 19 Clemson will open the new season at Doug Kingsmore Stadium on Feb. 13 against Army.