Aidan King enters the NCAA Tournament as a finalist for National Pitcher of the Year. (Photo: Hannah White/UAA Communications)
The Calm, The Fire And The Rise Of Aidan King
Thursday, May 28, 2026 | Baseball, Scott Carter
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By: Scott Carter, Senior Writer
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — Over the past 16 months, Aidan King has gone from an under-recruited pitcher in the UF bullpen to Southeastern Conference Pitcher of the Year.
King's ascension has been steady and consistent, mirroring his personality.
"There's no reason to act like somebody I'm not,'' he said.
He hasn't struck out 20 batters in a game as he did in high school, or wowed scouts with a stream of 100-mph fastballs. Instead, in one outing after another, King has shown opponents and fans that when he takes the mound, he means business.
Tracy King, Aidan's mother, has been watching him do what he does since he first reared back to throw.
"He's funny, because his personality outside of baseball and off the mound, he's laid-back and not really a whole lot bothers him,'' Tracy said. "He's always been my go-with-the-flow kid. But he's a different beast when he gets on the mound. Forget it. You see his fire and his spark.
"That's pretty much reserved for family game nights and when he's on the mound. He's a win-at-all-costs, you-don't-play-for-fun kid."
Laid-back off the field, Aidan King is all business once the competition starts. (Photo: Madilyn Gemme/UAA Communications)
King grew up in Jacksonville and showed a proficiency for throwing balls, brooms, pots, pans and anything else he could get his hands on as soon as he could walk. Soon, he was playing baseball, and when he was in elementary school, he joined the startup Jax Invaders, a travel ball team founded by Chris Crawford and part of the United States Specialty Sports Association (USSSA).
Those early seasons were difficult. Crawford, a former teammate of Gators head coach Kevin O'Sullivan at Florida State College at Jacksonville (formerly Jacksonville Community College-Jacksonville), was forced to take it slow with kids still learning how to put on their gloves.
But in King, Crawford sensed there was a player tucked inside the baggy uniform. King was always at the front of the huddle, wanting to learn as much as he could. And when it was time to play ball, he didn't need to be told to get ready.
Crawford has a favorite story he likes to tell.
"It goes back to when he was 9 years old. We didn't have enough players that year, and my daughter [Bailee] was the same age as that group,'' Crawford said. "She was athletic, a soccer player, and I need a ninth player. 'Can you just come out and play with us for a little while until I can get more players out?' She came out to the first practice, and I had her warm up with Aidan. And the very first ball he threw to her hit her right in the eye.
"She's never forgot it. She talks to him about it all the time. He's always been a competitor, and nothing rattles him. I've tried everything to rattle him. I don't care what situation you put him in – he just finds a way through it. That's unique in players these days."
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King discovered his passion while with the Invaders, and by the time he was on the 13- and 14-year-old teams, he was starting to blossom into the type of old-school pitcher who knows how to do much more than throw the ball hard.
When it was time for high school, Tracy and her husband, Chris King, decided to send Aidan to Bishop Snyder High School, a small Catholic private school with a teacher-to-student ratio better suited to help Aidan, who, like his father, has dyslexia. The structure and repetition required to master pitching mechanics appeal to him in the same way routines and preparation help him academically.
He not only grew academically. Before his freshman year at Bishop Snyder, King stood around 5-foot-5 and weighed 140 pounds. A growth spurt shot him toward the 6-foot-2, 210-pound King that Florida fans have watched shine on Friday nights this season.
He studied pitching as if it were another class. Aidan King stretches in the dugout at LSU to close the regular season. (Photo: Madilyn Gemme/UAA Communications)
"When I first started travel ball, they put a big emphasis on not throwing for velo and more for strikes and understanding how to pitch inside,'' King said. "If you are going to pitch inside, you're going to hit a guy. You have to be OK with that. From that point on, I understood what the inside part of the zone is, and depending on where the batter stands, I can adjust to that."
Rusty Kellum, a longtime prep coach in Jacksonville and a former pitcher at St. Johns River State College, was King's pitching coach at Bishop Snyder. Like Crawford in travel ball, Kellum noticed a pitcher's brain attached to King's right arm. King had attended baseball camps at the school several years before high school, and when he finally joined the Cardinals, Kellum was eager to tutor him.
"He always had the ability to command his fastball,'' Kellum said. "So, with that, we pitched inside. When he got to us, he was in the mid-to-high 70s [on the radar gun] as a freshman. You can't quite pitch as effectively inside at that velocity, but he would stick it in there. He's got the skill set of a guy who really knows how to place and pitch, and to think ahead and set pitches up. And now he's got the tools. His natural stuff is good enough to beat people. That combination is really good and really rare."
Kellum has a favorite story, too. It includes his son, Kaleb Kellum, a former teammate of King's who is now a UF student. Kaleb, an upperclassman playing shortstop, watched as King made his first start for the Cardinals as a freshman.
"Kaleb came off the field after the game and said, 'Dad, that kid's a lawnmower.' That stuck with me,'' Rusty Kellum said. "It's kind of a fitting theme for him. He just attacks. He had good stuff, but he was young. And his stuff wasn't developed enough to play against seniors that year. He took some losses, but nothing ever set him back."
As King continued to work on his craft at Bishop Snyder, the additional size cranked his velocity up to the mid-to-high 80s as a sophomore. With college on the horizon during the summer before his senior season, King had garnered interest from hometown schools Jacksonville and North Florida, and UCF was in the mix. Still, King had always wanted to play for the Gators. It's the school his mom attended, as did his maternal grandfather.
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When he visited UF, the Gators offered a preferred walk-on opportunity. Kellum made the trip with King, who was elated that he finally had an opportunity with the Gators.
"We walked out and went to eat at Spurrier's as a little celebration,'' Kellum said. "I told him, 'Hey, our goal now is to go get a scholarship.' He pitched his way into that."
Did he ever. King was dominant in his senior season, leading the Cardinals to the state playoffs by leading the state with 144 strikeouts in 72 1/3 innings and with a 1.06 ERA. He signed that scholarship with UF when the offer came, and then punctuated it on May 8, 2024.
In the Class 3A quarterfinals on a Wednesday night, King garnered national headlines by striking out 20 of 24 batters he faced in a one-hit, 3-0 victory over Providence School.
"All we could do at the end of that one was tip our cap,'' Providence coach Tommy Boss posted on social media after the game. "It was the best performance that I have ever witnessed in person."
Aidan King and Bishop Snyder High head coach Zach Osbeck on the night he struck out 20. (Photo: Courtesy of News4JAX)
Tracy King, as she prefers on nights when Aidan pitches, kept her mind busy by keeping a scorebook.
Her initial reaction as she tallied the Ks? "This can't be normal. This isn't right."
But it was – in a seven-inning game.
King was as surprised as anyone, unaware until after the game. As you might have surmised by now, he quickly moved past the historic performance the way he has in his breakout season at UF. King enters the NCAA Gainesville Regional as a finalist for Baseball America's National Pitcher of the Year. He is 8-2 with a 2.68 ERA, 0.98 WHIP and 89-19 strikeout-to-walk ratio.
King's current ERA is the lowest by a UF pitcher since Brady Singer in 2018 (2.55), not only one of the pitchers King tries to emulate, but also the last UF pitcher to be named SEC Pitcher of the Year before King. He'll politely shift topics to more important matters when queried about some of his accolades.
"I hate walking people,'' he said. "That's always been my thing."
Catcher Karson Bowen wakes up revived on days he knows King is pitching. Bowen doesn't mind strapping on his helmet, catching gear and then squatting behind the plate for the next two or three hours.
"It's fun,'' Bowen said. "He does a really good job of hitting his spots. He makes it easy for me. He rarely bounces the ball. When I go out there, I know that he's going to pound the zone. He deserves all the recognition he is getting."
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King's consistency prompted O'Sullivan to move him up in the rotation to replace Liam Peterson as the Gators' Friday Night starter in the middle of the season, and, depending on what happens Friday when the Gators face Rider, and Miami plays Troy, he could get the start on Saturday. O'Sullivan plans to start Russell Sandefer against Rider.
King will be ready as always. If you want to get King to sling some praises, you ask about his former coaches and his parents, those who helped him get here. He prefers to turn away attention like opposing hitters.
Aidan King during a start last month at Oklahoma. (Photo: Chad Hamilton/For UAA Communications)
Both his parents were athletes growing up, and, as best he can figure out, they are the ones who instilled the competitive juices that flow when he starts unleashing the fastballs, sliders and change-ups that form the anchor of his repertoire. His coaches have refined the approach.
"He doesn't really care about the numbers. He wants to go out there and dominate. He learned pretty young how to go in there and drown out the noise,'' Tracy King said. "It just never seemed to get to him. He's always had that mentality."
King's approach has paid off like a 3-2 fastball on the corner of the plate. Once he got a chance to move into the rotation as a freshman, he was not going to throw it away.
Away from the field, King remains the same laid-back kid from Jacksonville. But every time it's his turn to pitch, the switch flips again.
O'Sullivan does what those in King's past have done. Give him the ball and let him get down to business. More often than not, it pays off with a win.
"He's a bulldog,'' O'Sullivan said. "He's a true Friday night starter. He has maturity beyond his years, and it shows when he's out there on the mound."
