Austin Zabala was the winning pitcher in Gilmer High’s state playoff victory as a senior, and he is ready for more success at the next level.
Zabala will continue his educational and baseball pursuits at Shorter University. He fielded interest from LaGrange College and Piedmont University as well, with the latter also offering a scholarship.
“Shorter was the last school to reach out to me,” Zabala said. “They have what I want to study, they’re not too far from home, and they have a pretty good baseball team. I’ve known the coaches since I was 13, and I know a lot of the players there. It made me feel like home.”
He plans to study sports management with a minor in business and discussed his visit to Rome.
“I got to see the campus and it’s awesome,” Zabala said. “It’s not a big campus but with all the nature is over there, it makes it really feel like home. It’s really nice over there.”
Zabala met Shorter’s head coach Wes Timmons when he was coaching Austin’s older brother Blake’s travel team. Zabala entered the travel scene three years after his first season on the diamond. He is set to wrap up his 10-year club team career ahead of his fall semester at Shorter and currently plays for Nelson Baseball School out of Kennesaw.
“Back when I started travel, I was mainly playing in the Canton area,” he said. “Now, I’m traveling all over. This summer will be my last year playing, and we’re going to Florida and Alabama and some other places.”
With travel ball, most of Zabala’s time has been spent playing games with practices scattered in between. He noted he typically played between 40 and 50 games per year outside of the high school season depending on how far his team progressed in tournaments.
“I usually practice twice a week. As long as I kept my grades in focus, it didn’t feel like it was too much to handle,” he said. “For a lot of people, it’s a hard workload to manage. I’ve kind of gotten used to it. I work in Marietta (at East Cobb Baseball) where I literally run baseball tournaments. So I’ll be there from six in the morning until possibly 10 at night.
“I definitely felt like travel ball prepared me and gave me all of the reps that got me ready for high school baseball. I didn’t go here my freshman year, so it was kind of weird for me to develop with the whole high school scene.”
abala was home schooled up until his sophomore season. He continued to develop on and off the field, except now he did so with classmates.
In his first season at GHS in 2022, Zabala took the field at shortstop out of necessity. As an upperclassman, he played center field when he was not a starting pitcher. That was a departure from his travel days where he was a corner outfielder and relief pitcher.
“My sophomore season was the first year I played shortstop throughout my entire baseball career,” Zabala said. “Coach (Jeff) Thurman was like, ‘Hey, let’s stick you over there,’ and I got a feel for it. I really didn’t know what to expect with being a primary outfielder while pitching some.”
Zabala got the opportunity to showcase his pitching ability as a junior and senior. In 2023, he received an all-region honorable mention for his play in center field. He was Gilmer’s top hitter with a .313 batting average and an on-base plus slugging percentage of .785. He also drew 14 walks, stole four bases and hit a triple.
As a senior, Zabala was once again an all-region honorable mention. He had a tremendous year on the mound where he led GHS in five statistical categories including innings pitched (56 2/3), ERA (2.59), strikeouts (56), opposing batting average (.204) and wins (5-4 record). He issued 36 walks in 10 starts.
As team, Gilmer qualified for the state tournament for only the fourth time in school history in 2024. The Cats secured the a No. 4 seed and were tasked with playing region champion Ringgold on the Tigers’ home turf.
Zabala squared off against all-state pitcher Sebastian Haggard in game one of the best-of-three series. The Bobcats took the lead late and secured a 4-2 win for their first-ever playoff victory.
Zabala limited the Tigers to four hits and two walks while striking out four. Offensively, he recorded two hits.
“It was definitely a special experience,” Zabala said. “I didn’t know if I was going to go that whole game because I had already thrown 900-something pitches on the season. I told coach I was going to ‘Give it my all. This might be it, but I’m going to do what I can.’ I threw the whole game and exceeded my expectations for sure.”
Timely hits eluded GHS in game two, and the Tigers held on for a 5-3 win. RHS ended the Cats’ season with an 8-1 triumph in the series finale.
“It took a lot of grinding, and once everyone realized what we had a chance to play for, it focused us and lit a fire under everyone,” Zabala said of the Bobcats’ postseason berth. “It helped us out a bunch to make that playoff run.”
When it comes to positional preference, Zabala knows where he wants to play. He noted that Shorter coaches gave him the option to be a position player or a pitcher, and his future playing days will be spent on the mound.
“I love being on the mound,” he said. “The game is in your control when the ball is in your hand. It’s been something I’ve always loved to do is just pitch.
“This year, Shorter had some good pitching, but they had some injuries and players transfer, which is typical for college. They had a pretty good year overall and got knocked out of their conference tournament.”
Zabala’s fastball topped out at 86 miles per hour during his senior year. He currently throws a two-seam and four-seam fastball, splitter and curve ball. He plans to develop a change up as well and has been working on the grip.
“All of my coaches along the way have been very supportive,” Zabala said. “It also helps that I had an older brother who was also guiding me along this journey. He was hard on me, but it was for the best. It paid off, and I wouldn’t have been able to do this without him and my parents (Albert and Maria). They took the time out of their day and (spent) all the money to take me a hour and 30-minutes plus to practice during the week and to go play on weekends.”
Shorter competes in the National Collegiate Athletics Association’s Division II, and the Hawks are members of the Gulf South Conference. They will play some fall exhibitions, and the season will get underway next February.
“It’s awesome knowing that all my hard work didn’t go to waste,” Zabala said. “I’m getting my chance to go do something special beyond high school and play at the college level. I’m looking forward to getting my degree, and I want to be around baseball as long as I can.”