PBR Illinois Player of the Week: LHP Jackson Kent

Lake Park exploded out of the gate at the start of this season, with the help of OF/LHP Mason Baer (2022; Illinois-Chicago commit), actually earned the first Player of the Week honor following the first week of play.

Now, a second Lancer has earned the honor: senior LHP Jackson Kent, committed to UW-Milwaukee. The 2021 grad climbed up the rankings last summer as an arrow-up prospect, and he’s clearly taken another step forward in his senior spring, as he recorded one of the most impressive outings we can recall this past week in his start against the team that opened the season as the No. 1 team in the state, St. Charles North.

On Saturday, Kent took the ball against the top-ranked North Stars and proceeded to strike out 18 batters on 91 pitches without walking anyone, and he limited SCN to one run on two hits while his own offense backed him up with 10 hits and eight runs. Those 18 strike outs were a Lake Park program single-game record. Taking a closer look to this Kent start, the senior southpaw earned an unreal 31 swings and misses total, including the nine swings and misses it took to strike out the side in the second inning on 12 pitches. He struck out seven in a row at one point, as well.

And this was actually Kent’s second start of the week – he also pitched three shut-out innings against Wheaton North on May 3. In that short start, Kent struck out six in three innings and limited the opposition to one hit, three walks, in those three scoreless.

In total, the UW-Milwaukee recruit struck out 24 batters in 10 innings in Week 2, highlighted by his overwhelming start against one of the state’s most experienced, mature lineups.

Here’s a Kent scouting report and video from last summer:

Jackson Kent LHP / Lake Park, IL / 2021 From Top Prospect – Milwaukee Quick Hits (7/16/20): There might not be a prospect who left The Rock with more momentum than LHP Jackson Kent, from Lake Park HS in Illinois. Kent’s built at a strong 6-foot-3, 200 pounds, and he was pounding the zone with a fastball-curveball combination that opposing bats were struggling to pick up. The fastball sat mostly 86-87 mph, with one 88 in there, at a low spin that averaged 1,966 RPM. The curveball featured 1/7 shape and depth, thrown with confidence at 69-70 mph. Few prospects did as much as Kent in the way of enhancing his profile in front of the right kind of audience. (7/14/20)