A Day In The Life Of Vandy Baseball Commit DRUW JONES a Class Of 22’ Outfielder

Drew Jones from Suwannee, Georgia. I attend Wesleyan High School, committed to Vanderbilt. I play outfield and middle infield and this is a day in my life. I got into baseball at age three and my father, Andrew Jones, got me into playing baseball. I picked Vanderbilt over every other college because I know I can get the best development from the coaching staff and Tim Corbin and him being one of the most predominant coaches in the SEC and all of college baseball and also you can get a good education from going to Vanderbilt as well. It was a fun process. I mean you get to talk to a lot of different colleges throughout the southeast and it was a fun experience but Vanderbilt just seemed like it was the place for me. I mean it's always been a dream school of mine and just wanting to be able to go there, I mean it's a blessing to be able to be committed there and hopefully have a chance to play there. During my recruiting process, I reached out to Mike Baxter, the recruiting coordinator for Vanderbilt and we just made a connection and just talked like normal people most of the time, not really anything about baseball at the start and then as it started getting deeper and deeper, he started talking about more baseball stuff and possibly coming to the school and then I reached out to Coach Korbs and we connected there too and then I decided that it was the best option for me. For the most part, there's a little bit of pressure. I mean obviously everybody knows who you are because you're committed to such a high standard of school but you know just don't let the pressure always get to you and just play as hard as you can and do whatever you can do because I mean that's why they recruit you in the first place. They do, they believe in what you can do and I wouldn't try and do anything extra. I feel like when I was 13, I started like getting more into like just trying to play baseball and just have fun out there and just do whatever I can do but some of my coaches started talking about college recruiting and things like that and then more when I got to 14-year-old ball and I started seeing guys like committing to colleges like super early in eighth grade, that's when I was like okay I think I can hang with these guys and possibly do whatever I can do and be a D1 athlete and then going into 15-year-old ball, that's when it started hitting me like I'm probably going to go to the next level and be able to play at a high level all the time. Mike Trout has to be one of the or at least number one because I mean he goes out there and plays hard every day and you see him hustling everything out. He's not one of those guys that like takes advantage of just being an MLB. He really goes out there and plays. Fernando Tactis, I mean he's always exciting to watch. He's got all the drip that you need. If you want to get drip, that's probably where you need to go watch because he's got all that and probably Tim Anderson. I mean he's always exciting. He's big in the game right now. He's one of those guys that everybody looks up to and I mean I would want to be at that level that he's at. My best advice is just be yourself. I mean not everybody's going to be a D1 athlete. I mean you can take any route and go as far as you can with taking that route and you can always transfer out of a school and I mean you see a lot of guys going to junior college that get drafted and they go big in the draft and they get their money and you see guys from D2 and D3 schools and I mean D1 too but I mean if you want to get your name out there I would just say be yourself. I mean play hard, be a good teammate, do the best you can, work hard, hustle everything out and I mean colleges will see that and they'll be like man this guy has a chance and we can develop him to become one of our players and I mean it's just it's not like always going to Vanderbilt or UGA or Texas or the top schools. It's just about being yourself. My favorite sunflower seed probably buffalo style ranch or barbecue. I mean they're always just perfect and probably by David, sunflower seeds. So my favorite baseball memory is probably when I was 14 years old I want to say and we were playing on Mother's Day because during that time you're not in high school ball so you can play during that time and we come out on a Sunday and I come out I think I got out only like two times the entire day and I ended up getting hurt in the middle of the last game of the day so we were already in the championship but we were up by a lot and then some things happened some balls bounced around and then we got back down and I told my coach I said I need it I need to hit like I need to hit like this is like I need to hit he was like asking me if you're okay to hit and I was like yeah I think I'm good I'll just go up there and swing so we go up there and then there's runners on first and second and two outs and I come in with a hurt hip and trying to hit with a hurt hip is not easy but I ended up hitting a ball off the top of the wall and walking us off on Mother's Day and that was just like probably one of the best Mother's Day gift I could have my top three favorite wood bats I'll put Louisville Slugger at number one uh the C271 Prime um I've just had a good run with it for a long time I mean I've been swinging it uh here and there I just started kind of getting into them in the fall and just like worrying about bats because of the way they feel but um probably the C271 Prime by Louisville um my second favorite brand I want to say is Old Hickory uh the AJ25 it's the same model that my dad had when he was by Old Hickory and I mean it just feels good it's got a skinny handle and a big barrel so you get the maximum whip and pop on it and then my third favorite is the Victus JC24 it just is balanced you can't get much better than that my current favorite walk-up song is Slime Belief by NBA Youngboy and I used it my freshman year and it was just like it just clicked from there and I never really changed it after that and then also Had Enough by Don Tolliver my mindset when walking up to the plate is um just try and hit the ball back at the pitcher and I mean you can do pretty much anything from that if it's inside you can pull it and if it's away then you can hit it the other way and just it works uh both ways and if it's right down the middle you work right back at the pitcher and it goes right up the middle there's always a hole in the middle came here to full count and worked with Polanco, Ariel Polanco AP and I worked on more backside engagement so getting my hand from beyond my shoulder and working on or turning from a tighter window and then making sure my hip line is still behind my front hip when I swing and then my body is still behind my front hip it's been Drew Jones this has been a day in my life