Patience and persistence: Liberty’s Sims brothers share common mindset on diamond or casting lines

LIBERTY, Ill. — For Jackson Sims, baseball and fishing go hand-in-hand.

“When things aren’t going your way, you just have to cope with it and be patient,” said Sims, a senior right-handed pitcher and third baseman for the Liberty baseball team and an avid angler.

Both baseball and fishing are about adjustments — finding what works, looking for an edge, tweaking little things.

“Try new pitches, new lures, different spots, different ways to reel your lures in, everything like that,” Sims said.

You may catch no fish or 15. You may throw six shutout innings or give up seven runs in two innings.

No matter the situation, Sims believes you must win that mental battle and keep a positive mindset.

“That’s my philosophy,” Sims said.

Sims has waged and won plenty of those mental battles, which has allowed him to establish himself as one of the most consistent pitchers in the area and the Eagles’ ace.

“You know when he’s out there on the mound, he’s going to keep you in the game,” Eagles coach Travis Ruppel said. “He just has that mentality. He doesn’t have to throw hard, but he’s going to hit his spots, he’s going to throw strikes and he’s going to command the plate the entire game.”

After posting a 2.62 ERA as a sophomore and 2.48 ERA as a junior in 18 combined appearances, Sims has been firing on all cylinders in 2025. Through his first two appearances of the season, Sims has not given up a run in 8 ⅓ innings while striking out 14, walking five and giving up just five hits.

And he has thrown every pitch to his brother, sophomore catcher Evan Sims.

“They know what is expected of each other, and when it comes down to it, I haven’t seen Jackson shake off Evan too much,” Travis Ruppel said.

Except for a short time at the beginning of the Eagles’ season-opener against Brown County, Evan Sims — not Ruppel — has called every pitch.

For the first inning and part of the second of that March 18 game against the Hornets, Ruppel signaled pitches to Evan Sims with a SportsCom electronic communication device — made legal in IHSA competition beginning in 2024 — but Sims was having trouble getting his earpiece to stay in place.

“Coach gave me it, I put my helmet on, and it just kept falling out,” Evan Sims said. “That thing was not going to work.”

When Sims alerted Ruppel of the issue in the second inning, Ruppel gave Sims the green light to start calling his own pitches.

“I said, ‘Go ahead. I trust you. Let’s see what happens,’” Ruppel said.

That trust has paid off.

The Eagles won that game 3-0 with Jackson Sims and Reed Sparrow combining for the shutout. Jack Sparrow struck out 14 Winchester West Central batters in five innings the following game — a 12-4 Eagles victory — and Jackson Sims and Gavin Edgar combined to shut out Payson Seymour last Monday. Evan Sims pitched the first three innings of a 12-2 victory over West Hancock that boosted the Eagles to 4-0.

That sets the stage for a five-game week in which Liberty will face Illini West and Quincy Notre Dame at home.

“He’s done a great job so far,” Ruppel said of Evan Sims’ pitch-calling. “Usually I like to go about five or six games and let guys know kind of what I expect and what I want, but he’s done a great job calling it and I haven’t had any issues with him taking the reins.”

Evan Sims appreciates that trust from his coach.

“It means a lot to me to see that he has faith in me,” Evan Sims said.

Jackson Sims said he and his brother are on the same page more times than not when it comes to pitch selection.

“We’re always talking about which pitch to throw in certain situations,” Jackson Sims said. “It’s a lot of mental stuff between the two of us. We think along the same lines pretty much. I shake him off every once in a while, but pretty much any pitch I have in mind to throw, he puts it down. It makes it pretty easy.”

They think along the same lines when they are on the baseball field, but they don’t necessarily see eye to eye on which Major League Baseball team to root for. Jackson, like most of his family, is a Chicago Cubs fan, while Evan chose the St. Louis Cardinals at a young age.

“The series when they face each other, the tension is high in the house,” Evan Sims said.

But to Jackson, that tension makes it all the more enjoyable.

“It’s always an argument. It’s never an agreement in our house,” Jackson Sims said. “That’s what makes it fun. Every day there’s something we’re competing for.”

The Sims brothers also wage some friendly competition with each other when it comes to fishing. While Jackson has been fishing for most of his life, Evan got hooked on it in junior high.

“I picked it up one day and liked it ever since,” Evan Sims said.

Both brothers are also members of the Liberty bass fishing team, which competes in the spring alongside baseball.

“There are a few times this season where I have to pick baseball over fishing, but I signed up for every other one,” Evan Sims said.

Evan still has a long way to go to catch his brother in terms of largest bass caught — 5 pounds to 9.2 pounds — but Evan thinks he can get there one day.

“That’s about to change soon,” Evan Sims said.

Jackson wasn’t so sure.

“He thinks he’s a good fisherman, but I wouldn’t say that,” Jackson Sims said.

One thing they can agree on is how the mental approach to fishing translates to baseball.

“It’s very difficult, but it’s exciting when it finally clicks,” Evan Sims said. “The patient mentality, waiting for things to figure themselves out, not getting down on yourself when you’re going through a rough spot because you always know that it’s going to get better.”

Ruppel’s junior high and high school baseball coaching responsibilities along with those he has with his own three kids do not allow for much fishing time, but Ruppel sees how baseball and fishing go hand-in-hand.

“Fishing is something you have to have patience with,” Ruppel said. “You might go fishing one day and not catch a single thing, or you might go out and it’s raining and you catch 12 fish. That’s not usually the case when it’s raining, but that happens. Being able to be patient and have that easy-going spirit usually is helpful when you’re doing anything, and sometimes that’s hard to do when you’re out on a baseball field and you’re maybe not having your best day.”

Jackson and Evan Sims have been able to channel that patience and mental fortitude into success as battery mates.

“It’s fun being a pitcher-catcher duo, having the game in our hands and just competing together,” Jackson Sims said. “We’re mentally tough.”