Photo By Hallie Walker, Mississippi State Athletics
By Parrish Alford
For all of their lives you couldn’t talk about one Parker without talking about the other.
Until now.
Jacob and JoJo Parker gained fame in the baseball community as youth league stars, Purvis High School state champions and pro prospects. They were inseparable.
Until now.
Both were Mississippi State baseball commits until last summer when JoJo, the eighth overall pick by Toronto in the Major League Baseball draft, chose the professional path.
“When you talk about one, you talk about the other,” said Tony Farlow, their coach at Purvis who retired this past season and being Purvis head coach for 27 seasons. “There was always a “friendly” competition among the brothers, Farlow said. “I think they’re very competitive with each other. I think they’re best friends. They just grew up doing everything together.”
JoJo, a middle infielder, is generally regarded as the No. 2 or 3 prospect within the Blue Jays’ organization and within the top 70 Major League prospects.
“I told my wife the other night, Jacob’s been doing pretty good for State, and then JoJo hit a (spring training) home run last Saturday,” Farlow said.
Jacob Parker chose the college path.
There were whispers that he drew second- and third-round draft interest, but contract discussions didn’t meet his liking. Arizona took a chance in the 19th round, but he said “no thanks.”
State fans are glad he did.
It’s not that they necessarily needed Jacob Parker as another diamond on the talent-filled, transfer-heavy roster for first-year coach Brian O’Connor.
But Parker has made himself indispensable.
After early but limited opportunities O’Connor noted that Parker had “caught his attention.” That led to more opportunities.
Photo By Hallie Walker, Mississippi State Athletics
Parker was a major factor in the Bulldogs’ road sweepof rival Ole Miss over the weekend, coming off the bench with a pinch-hit RBI groundout to tie the game in the ninth as State rallied to win 5-4.
He then delivered a mammoth 2-run home run to the Rebels’ famous right field student section as the Bulldogs pulled away in the middle innings in Game 2 to win 6-1. Sunday, Parker’s solo shot in a three-run fourth helped set State on a course to win 7-1.
He’s hitting .346 for the season with three doubles and six home runs going into this week. Nine of his 18 hits are for extra bases. His 20 RBIs are tied for fourth on the team and have come in just 52 at-bats.
Ace Reese leads with 37 RBIs in 109 at-bats.
After the Ole Miss sweep, the Bulldogs are 24-4 overall, 7-2 in the SEC. They are ranked No. 4 in the most recent D1Baseball.com Top 25. MSU plays host to No. 5 Georgia, which leads the nation in home runs, in a three-game series, starting Thursday.
A big outfielder with speed and range, Jacob Parker was a starter in Game 4 against Troy as a designated hitter when he went 0-for-4.
His first college hit came the next day as a pinch-hitter against Alcorn State, a double.
He’s had three multi-hit games, and among his home runs is a three-run blast in last week’s 12-0 run-rule win against Southern Miss.
“He just hits the ball so hard,” Farlow said. “I’ve watched most of his games. It reminds me of him in high school. He just sits there and barrels the ball up whether it’s a line drive hit or a line drive out.”
As Jacob’s star rises he remains grounded.
“We’re a really deep team, a really great team, and I’m just trying to seize every opportunity I can when I get in the lineup,” Jacob said. “It’s fun, it’s baseball. I just love being out there in front of my guys.”
It was evident in their young lives that the Parker twins were baseball naturals. The genetics were in place. Their father, Joseph, was a star athlete at Purvis before a paralyzing football injury as a junior. Now he holds the office of Lamar County Court Judge.
Brandon Parker, a cousin, spent five years in the Braves’ system in the early 2020s. Another cousin, Tate Parker, was a baseball letterman at Southern Miss.
The brothers were elite travel ball players, but the real stamp that they were “different” came in the summer of 2021 when former State coach Chris Lemonis, during his team’s championship run in Omaha, took time to call two guys who at the time were not even high school freshmen. Though not yet ninth-graders, they had already spent a year as starters at Purvis.
The work ethic for both brothers has kept them on an upward trajectory since those early years.
As Jacob Parker establishes himself in SEC baseball “he’s just so much more polished now than he was his last couple of years. He’s just so big and strong,” Farlow said of the 6-foot-3, 220-pounder.
His baseball life is at a different level now, but lessons learned along the way are paying off in a big way.
Photo By Mario Terrana, Mississippi State Athletics
“I’ve been in the baseball spotlight for a little bit of my life,” Parker said. “The pressure has prepared me for some of these moments. There’s still a lot (to learn). SEC play is crazy. It’s a different atmosphere, but my life, and how I’ve gone about it has prepared me for some of what’s happening right now, and I’m still learning, trying to figure it out.”
O’Connor, considered one of the top college coaches in the country with seven College World Series appearances, one national championship and one national runner-up finish at Virginia, has had plenty of talented freshman during his brilliant, 23-year head coaching career. He has another one in Parker.
“We’re only 25-26 games into the season but it doesn’t surprise me what the young man’s doing because I’ve seen how he’s been trending throughout the season and the adjustments that he’s made,” said O’Connor in an interview with Robbie Faulk of on3.com after the Ole Miss series. “Y’all have heard me talk about the presence that he’s had. He’s incredibly even keeled, the moment’s not too big for him. He’s going to be pretty special in this uniform. I’ve been fortunate in my career to have a lot of really great freshmen that have impacted games. Kyle Teel had a special freshman year. Henry Ford, who is over at Tennessee, hit 22 or 23 home runs his freshman year. There’s been others, but this young man is really talented. If he stays where he’s at and stays with that same approach – difference maker for us, candidly.”
Parrish Alford, a two-time Mississippi sports writer of the year, was raised in Denham Springs, Louisiana and graduated from Northeast Louisiana University before the school changed its name to Louisiana-Monroe.
He’s covered college sports in Mississippi since 1989, spending time as a beat writer for multiple seasons at each of the state’s Division I schools.
He’s most known for his work as a beat writer and columnist for the Northeast Mississippi Daily Journal in Tupelo, where he spent 30 years.
He is the author of “Habitual Deadline – sports stories of three-plus decades from the guy who came and stayed.”
A Christian, husband, father and grandfather, he is currently the editor of American Family News (AFN.net), a division of American Family Association.