As he began his high school baseball career at SouthWest Edgecombe High, Jake Fuller started to dream that he could play beyond high school.

He doesn’t have to dream anymore, as Fuller recently signed his National Letter of Intent to play baseball at Louisburg College.

“It’s awesome,” Fuller said. “Just knowing that I put in the work and it’s coming through now. I knew I wanted to play somewhere after high school.”

Fuller, the son of Fred and Jenny Fuller and a native of Rocky Mount, also had offers from Barton and NC Wesleyan.

The level of interest Hurricanes head coach Blake Herring and his staff showed, however, told Fuller that Louisburg was where his future lay.

“The coaches just kept in touch all along ever since they came to watch me play,” Fuller said. “When I went on the visit, it just felt like the right place for me to be.”

Fuller, who played three years of varsity baseball and also played football his freshman year, will head to Louisburg as a pitcher.

In three years as a Cougar, he compiled an 8-4 record, posted a 1.48 ERA and fanned 137 batters with just 39 walks.

His senior year was his best, as Fuller went 5-3 with a 1.29 ERA, 89 strikeouts and 24 walks. As he gets ready to pitch in college, Fuller believes his strengths are his fastball and changeup, and ability to attack the zone, as he looks to keep improving his off-speed pitches and mechanics.

“He’s got a really live arm,” said SouthWest Edgecombe head coach Spiers Miller. “His velocity is still increasing, and his off-speed has really developed. His curveball was always really good, and he added a nice changeup this year. I think that will really help him at the next level.”

Though Fuller won’t hit in college, he also made his mark with his bat for the Cougars, compiling a .322 batting average, 29 runs scored, 12 RBIs and 13 extra-base hits across his high school career.

“He did everything for us,” Miller said. “He was super athletic, probably the most athletic guy on the field. Excellent arm, excellent bat, excellent speed. Really a five-tool high school player. I know he’s going to Louisburg just to pitch, so hopefully he can take a big jump with that. But he did everything for us.”

Miller also counted on Fuller as a leader for the Cougars, and he was often the team’s tone setter on and off the field.

“I told him this many times, we kind of went as he went,” Miller said. “I didn’t want to add that extra pressure to him, but that’s just how it is when you’re the guy. So we kind of went with him and he was the leader. Everybody looked up to him. He did a great job with that.”

Fuller, who also played for the Wilson American Legion Post 13 baseball team, looks back fondly on his high school years and baseball career at SouthWest Edgecombe as he prepares to transition to the next level.

He knows that the lessons he learned from Miller in high school will help him in college.

“He was always telling me what I needed to do and how it was going to be at the next level, and he was always there for me, telling me what I needed to do,” Fuller said.

As he goes into college, Fuller also knows that he can be a role model for young baseball players at SouthWest Edgecombe hoping to follow in his footsteps to the college ranks.

Miller can point to the improvements Fuller made going into his senior year that led him to a college offer as evidence of the rewards that hard work can bring.

“I feel like I always need to do the right thing, so that way those guys, if they’re looking up to me, if they’re going to be like me, I feel like I need to do the right thing on the field and off the field so they’ll do the same,” Fuller said.