Conner Jones '21 Recruiting Profile

A little about myself, I started playing baseball at age seven after our family moved to Virginia from South Carolina where I did competitive karate. I started playing on Virginia Crush when I was age nine, as an athletic player with less baseball knowledge and experience than other players on the team. I committed to continue learning the game and worked hard on improving my skills. My playing time increased with my skills and knowledge, becoming the starting catcher for the team. Being such an athletic player, I was a utility player (predominately as an outfielder, first base, and pitcher, when not catching, helping the team as needed.

When the Crush team disbanded after my U11 season, I was recruited by Virginia Blacksox at the beginning of my U12 Fall season in preparation for the Virginia Blacksox's Cooperstown U12 team. After the U13 Fall season, I tried out and joined the Old Dominion Hitters (ODH) and played with them until my freshman year at Grassfield High School when I made the Fall team. I continued playing for the Grassfield High School team in my sophomore year and fall Junior season. Our spring 2020 season was canceled this year due to COVOD-19.

While I played for ODH and Grassfield the padding in my knees to protect my knee bones started thinning so my doctor recommended I discontinue as catcher, but I was not ready to give up on baseball. So, I started focusing and working on pitching and transitioned into throwing underhand (submarine), sidearm three quarter in addition to classic overhand delivery. Having the option to switch between delivery motions at the beginning of my sophomore year under the direction of former Major League All-Star Pitcher Gary Lavelle was a game changer for me as a pitcher. My different styles of pitching has opened up the opportunity of different goals in specific games, whether eating up as many innings as possible as a starter when low on available relievers or flat out dominating as closer or middle reliever for a set number of innings.

The different assignments as a pitcher have strongly helped to determine my style of pitching and the different roles and goals I have in a specific game. I have continued to work with Coach Lavelle to refine my different pitching styles at the Bryant and Stratton College, where he is their Pitching Coach.