It has been more than three years since Jimmy Jackson was the pitching coach for the JMU Baseball team.
But the tutelage of the former minor league hurler still reaches to the Shenandoah Valley – and the Town of Shenandoah.
Lance Williams, who pitched for Jackson this past season at the University of Maryland, was selected on Sunday in the eighth round by the Chicago Cubs in the second of two days of the 2026 MLB Draft.
Williams is from Shenandoah and attended Page County High School before transferring to William Monroe. The pitcher began his college career at East Carolina before transferring to College Park for the 2026 campaign.
“I believe that Lance can be a starter or reliever at the next level,” Jackson wrote to the AFP on Monday. “He’s one of the hardest workers I have had the pleasure to coach and a genuinely great person.”
Williams opened the “year as Maryland’s Friday night starter before transitioning into a key bullpen role later in the season,” according to the Maryland website.
Jackson was the pitching coach for JMU in 2019 when the Dukes had four pitchers drafted: Kevin Kelly (Cleveland) of Paul VI High in Northern Virginia; Roanoke native Nick Robertston (Los Angeles Dodgers) from Franklin County; Shelton Perkins (Baltimore Orioles) of North Carolina; and Philadelphia native Dan Goggin (New York Mets), who reached the Double-A level with the Mets before playing indy ball.
Perkins reached the Double-A level with the Orioles but hasn’t played since 2022.
Kelly made his MLB debut with Tampa Bay in 2023, while Robertson broke in with the Dodgers the same year. Robertson last pitched in the Majors in 2024 with the St. Louis Cardinals and Toronto Blue Jays, while Kelly had an ERA of 2.44 in his first 41 games out of the pen this year for the Rays.
Williams is the first former Page County player to be taken in the MLB draft, according to baseballreference.com. Wayne Comer, a native of Shenandoah and a graduate of Page County High, signed with the Washington Senators out of high school in 1962 and played in the Majors from 1967-1972.
The MLB Draft began in 1965. Comer coached at Spotswood High and Page County after his playing career and passed away in 2023.
T.R. Williams, the brother of Lance, initially enrolled at Virginia Tech before transferring to JMU in time for the 2023 season. He helped Page County win a state title in 2018 as a freshman pitcher with Comer as the coach. Jackson was the JMU pitching coach in 2023.
Tyler Zombro, who pitched at Staunton High School, at George Mason and in the summers with the Staunton Braves, works with the Cubs helping to develop pitchers and sometimes travels with the club, according to his mother, Fonda, a former athlete at Bridgewater College and the principal at Fort Defiance High School.
JMU continued
A JMU pitcher from the 2026 season was also drafted on Sunday. Luke McGrath, who is from North Carolina, went in the 18th round, also to the Cubs.
He was a redshirt sophomore this past season for the Dukes, and became the 14th player under JMU coach Marlin Ikenberry to be taken. Jackson helped recruit McGrath to JMU but then headed to the Terps of Maryland before coaching him in Harrisonburg.
McGrath is the first JMU player to be drafted by the Cubs since John Mincone in 2007. Former JMU pitcher Brian McNichol, a Fairfax native who went to Gar-Field, pitched in four games for the Cubs in 1999. Lynchburg native Mike Hubbard, another JMU product, was a catcher for the Cubs from 1995-1997.
More Virginia draft picks
Ryan Marohn, a pitcher from Chantilly and Freedom High School, was selected out of North Carolina State by the Pittsburgh Pirates.
Players from Virginia schools – save the University of Virginia – who were selected include:
- Ben Blair, a pitcher from Liberty who went in the second round to Tampa Bay; he was the second-highest pick in school history, after Sid Bream by the Dodgers in the second round in 1981.
- Brett Renfrow, a pitcher from Virginia Tech who was drafted 74th overall by the Minnesota Twins.
- Luke Craytor, another Hokies hurler who went in the ninth round to the Chicago White Sox.
- Tanner Marsh, an infielder from Liberty who was selected in the ninth round by the A’s.
- Zack Peters, a pitcher from VCU who was drafted by the Miami Marlins in the 10th round.
- Jackson Nash, a pitcher from Longwood who went in the 12th round to the Texas Rangers; he is the third-highest pick in Longwood history, back of first-round pick and veteran big-leaguer Michael Tucker (1992 by the Kansas City Royals), and Franklin Watson, a seventh-round pick in 1988, also by the Royals.
- Grayton Fitzwater, a first baseman from VMI and Suffolk who went to the White Sox in the 13th round; “The whole thing has been surreal,” he said on the VMI website. He was the first position player to be taken out of VMI since 2018.
- Griffin Stieg, a pitcher from Virginia Tech who was drafted by the Pirates, also in the 13th round.
- Lee Garris, an outfielder from Maury High School who went in the 13th round to the New York Yankees; he had committed to attending JMU before the draft.
- Ray Ladd, a pitcher from Radford University who was taken in the 14th round by the Cincinnati Reds.
- Madden Clement, yet another hurler from Virginia Tech, who slotted in the 15th round to the Kansas City Royals.
- Owen Clyme, a shortstop from George Mason University who went in the 15th round to the Philadelphia Phillies.
- Tyler August, a pitcher from Liberty who was taken by the A’s in the 16th round.
- Josh Swink, another hurler from the Flames program who went in the 17th round to the Colorado Rockies.
- Michael Petite, an outfielder from VCU taken by the Seattle Mariners in the 19th round. He was the third Ram to be taken by Seattle since 2022. Former JMU infielder Nick Zona was drafted by the Mariners in 2022. Harrisonburg native Cal Raleigh is the top catcher for Seattle.
The draft was for 20 rounds over two days in Philadelphia, the site of the Futures Game and MLB All-Star Game.
Virginia Tech had at least four players chosen for the sixth year in a row. The four Hokie hurlers was the most since 2013. Liberty has had at least one pick every year since 2000 – save 2020, when the draft was just five rounds.
Washington Nationals with Virginia ties
The Washington Nationals drafted pitcher Zack Konstantinovsky in the 14th round out of Rutgers.
The pitching coach for Rutgers this year was Ryan Fecteau, who held the job at Virginia Tech before heading to Pepperdine and then Rutgers.
The Nationals drafted pitcher Zach Brzykcy out of Virginia Tech in 2020, and he pitched for Washington for part of the 2024 and 2025 seasons. He is now in the Marlins’ system. “You look at the guy and he screams big league pitcher,” Washington minor league coach Sam Narron told this reporter soon after the 2020 draft.
Support AFP
Share
David Driver
