COLUMBIA — John Jones thought he had no chance. Leaving campus for winter break, he was convinced that any opportunity he had of cracking South Carolina’s starting lineup had evaporated in a mediocre fall camp.
“I wouldn’t say I was too confident I would be in the lineup,” said the sophomore catcher and DH. “I didn’t feel like I did anything to stand out. I was kind of in the middle of the pack.”
That’s hardly the case now. One of the hottest hitters in all of college baseball, Jones leads not just USC, but the SEC with a .