LINDEN — North Montgomery senior Jarrod Kirsch dreamed of what took place on Thursday ever since he was a little kid. Thursday the senior ace of the Charger pitching staff signed with Wabash College to continue his academic and baseball career with his family, friends, and coaching staff in attendance. The signing capped off what has been a historic few days for Kirsch. Tuesday against Western Boone, Kirsch struck out his 234th batter of his career to stand alone as the all-time strike-out leader for the Chargers.
“It’s always been a dream of mine to play baseball at the next level,” Kirsch said. “Ever since I was a little four year-old hitting a baseball in the back yard, it’s something that envisioned myself doing. When I got to high school, It was something that I really took seriously. Baseball has always been more sport and I’m just excited to be able to continue doing what I love.”
The numbers that Kirsch has accumulated on the mound over his career with the Chargers stand alone. Kirsch’s ERA over his career is a stellar 1.82 and he’s held opposing hitters to a .203 average against him. Those are just his numbers on the mound. What doesn’t get talked about enough with Kirsch is what he does for the Chargers on offense. He’s a career .356 hitter and he gets on base with a staggering .506 on-base%.
“What’s great about Jarrod is that he understands as a pitcher, you can’t have the success that he’s had without the help of some outstanding teammates,” Charger coach Matt Voorhees said. “What made today great was you saw how many of his teammates were here to support him and those guys have been his best friends pretty much his whole life. His older brothers were here today and they also came through our program and were phenomenal for us. It’s pretty neat to see everything come together for Jarrod. You combine all the hard work he’s put in along with the family and friendships and it’s turned into quite the career and this is just the cherry on top of it all.”
Kirsch broke the strikeout record that was previously held by Jason Reese who graduated back in 2001. He’s also on the cusp of breaking plenty more pitching records for the Chargers this season. The senior southpaw did note how special it was to cement his name at the top.
“It’s a real honor to be able see my name at the top of that list,” Kirsch said. “I know that I’ve been close to it for awhile and it’s a real stress reliever now that I don’t have that in the back of my mind. At the same time records are nice to have, but they aren’t the things I think about too much. It comes down to me going out there and playing my best baseball each time I’m out there.”
The Little Giants weren’t the only school that was interested in Kirsch’s services. However when you combine the Wabash education that Kirsch will receive along with vested interest that they showed in him, Kirsch said the choice was pretty clear that he’d be a Little Giant.
“Wabash has always been close to me,” Kirsch said. “I always found myself going to their games and when I talked with Coach (Jake) Martin, it felt like he really wanted me to be a Little Giant. Wabash is always a brotherhood and I’m really excited to get to be apart of that for the next four years.”
Kirsch and the rest of the Chargers have big goals this season as this senior class wants to finish their careers strong. With Kirsch right in the middle of it, the Chargers and this future Little Giant can accomplish great things in 2024.
