J.L. Mann pitcher Leslie Jury was late to pitching, but has become a South Carolina standout on the way to a scholarship with the Crimson Tide.
Leslie Jury's transition from an infielder to a pitcher occurred as she grew.
Too tall for shortstop, a coach told her, Jury moved to the mound and became a sensation in South Carolina. It did take a few years, though.
"I started and I was awful," said Jury, now a senior at
Mann (Greenville, S.C.) and a recent signee for the University of Alabama.
Leslie Jury
Photo by Jed Blackwell
After throwing more than 100 pitches a day after the move, Jury became better at stopping opposing hitters. Mann assistant coach Vicki Corn was the person who switched Jury's position during her early teen years and her reasoning for the move was simple.
"She was bigger than all the other kids and not as heavy. She was a tall, slender girl with big hands and long fingers which is a prototype for a good pitcher," Corn said. "She was a good athlete and when she threw the ball, she threw it really, really hard and I felt like there was something there that you don't see often that could make a great pitcher."
Jury has certainly turned into that.
Now, a 6-footer, Jury's stride gets her closer to the batter and she's topping 70 mph on the radar gun. She throws five pitches - rise, drop, screw, curve and change - and throws them with accuracy.
That wasn't always the case.
"The first couple of years she couldn't throw the ball in the same area code. She threw it so hard, but so wild," Corn said. "Nobody could catch it and nobody could hit it. She was just wild. As she got older and began developing some control with her speed, then it started looking like something big could happen with her."
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After posting a 5-9 record as a seventh grader, Jury has posted five consecutive winning seasons (17-4 in 2007, 11-6 in '08, 18-4 in '09, 19-2 in '10 and 15-2 going into this week).
Her ERA hasn't gone over 0.59 in that time, she's struck out more than 1,250 batters and has won back-to-back Gatorade Player of the Year awards for the state. She's also a great hitter, as she's posted a .588 average this season, has 11 career homers and has driven in more than 140 runs in her career.
"Leslie has tremendous upside both pitching and hitting," Alabama coach Patrick Murphy said in a release after Jury signed with the Crimson Tide. "What excites us most about her is that she is nowhere near her top potential. She hit 71 mph on a radar gun this summer and she can still get better."
Now, the jury is still out on whether Jury can lead the Patriots to a third straight state championship. The reason why it's up in the air is that J.L. Mann moved from the state's 3A classification to 4A.
Moving up also put the Patriots, who were the preseason No. 1 team in 4A, in the toughest conference in the state, Region II-4A. That region also has Mauldin, Boiling Springs and Byrnes, who were each ranked in the state's latest Top 10 poll.
Mauldin was ranked first after a recent win over J.L. Mann and the Patriots were No. 2.
"It's a lot different," Jury said. "The teams in 3A were good, but the region we're in now is phenomenal. Every night, we have to bring our top game or we could lose to anybody. This region has six great teams and they're all pretty much ranked. It's definitely a challenge for us.
"It's brought a whole new aspect to the team. We've never really had to fight this hard every night and it's showed that this team has a lot of character and we're stepping up to the challenge."
Jury chose Alabama as a 15-year-old after narrowing down her choices to Florida and Alabama. She went to camps to meet coaches and then took her visits and said she hasn't wavered from her decision.
"Alabama is where I'm meant to be," said Jury, who plays summer ball for the Gulf Coast Hurricanes Gold, out of Fort Lauderdale, Fla.
"I have no doubt that she'll step in and be a key component to Alabama's success next year and for the next four years," Corn said. "There will be a learning curve because she's going into the SEC. I'm not going to say that she'll have some things to learn, but I think she'll make the adjustments and be a force to reckon with in the future."
She is the first South Carolina prep player to sign with Alabama for softball, but she's not likely to be the last. Carolina Forest sophomore shortstop Marisa Runyon has already committed to the school.
"Hopefully it gives South Carolina a good name," Jury said, "and lets people know that there are just as good of athletes coming out of South Carolina as in all the other states."
Jason Gilmer is an award-winning writer who has covered football in South Carolina for more than a decade. He does a statewide high school football blog on GoUpstate.com. You can reach him at palmettofootballtalkblog@gmail.com.
