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Druw Jones helps force a Game 3 for Wesleyan, and Cooper Blauser drives home the winning run to send the Wolves to the state championship

After falling to Mount Paran in extra innings in Game 1, Wesleyan comes back from a 6-0 deficit in Game 3 for a 7-6 win in eight innings.
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By Zach Shugan | Photos by Jamie Spaar

With Wesleyan’s season on the line, head coach Brian Krehmeyer called on Druw Jones.

The potential No. 1 overall pick in this year’s MLB Draft, Jones has been in the spotlight — and delivered — plenty of times in his young career.

“If our backs are against the wall as they were tonight, there’s no better player you would want on the mound than Druw Jones,” Krehmeyer said Monday. “He can handle that pressure.”

After Wesleyan fell 4-2 to Mount Paran in a 10-inning marathon in the first game of the Class A Private semifinals, the Wolves had to bounce back in the second half of Monday’s doubleheader in order to force a decisive Game 3 on Tuesday.

Jones took care of business on the mound, going 4.2 innings and striking out six batters in an 11-7 win. The Wolves lit up the scoreboard early and often, with Jones tallying two hits and an RBI.

Most importantly, Wesleyan kept its season alive and found itself one game away from its first state championship appearance since 2016.

It took some more extra-innings drama on Tuesday to settle the series, but the Wolves came out on top and secured a spot in the championship series.

After falling behind 6-0 to the Eagles in the top of the fourth inning, Wesleyan fought back and won 7-6 with a walk-off single by Clemson commit Cooper Blauser in the eighth inning.

Regardless of the outcome in the state championship, which will be played May 24-25 at Coolray Field against North Cobb Christian, Jones knows his days of donning a Wolves jersey and playing alongside his childhood friends are numbered, and he's not taking them for granted.

“It means a lot just being out here and being on this team,” Jones said. “All the coaches are great and all my teammates I’ve had here, I’m going to have a connection with them for the rest of my life.”

Soon enough, one major league team will call his name in the draft and offer him a boatload of money to hop on board. He could say yes, or he could decline and choose to enroll at Vanderbilt, where he committed during the summer after his freshman year.

Most scouts and analysts agree Jones will be the first or second pick in July’s draft. The son of former big leaguer Andruw Jones, a five-time All-Star with over 400 career home runs, the younger Jones has all the makings of a superstar.

“His talent goes without saying," Krehmeyer said. "What’s so impressive to me is what a well-mannered young man he is and what a great teammate he is. He truly gets excited when his teammates experience success. It’s not about him. In fact, he kind of shies away from the spotlight and attention. He knows he has a future in baseball, but at the same time this high school baseball season is what’s most important to him.”

Krehmeyer has seen the constant stream of scouts come to watch Jones and the lines of little kids waiting to ask for his autograph after games, and he's seen the high schooler handle it all "like a seasoned pro."

He might actually be a seasoned pro in the future, but until then, Jones is just trying to win a state championship.

He singled to start the rally back from that 6-0 deficit Tuesday, scoring the first of three runs in the fourth inning to halve Mount Paran's lead.

And he drew one of three walks in the eighth that came before Blauser's winning hit.

The final series of Jones' high school career will be exactly as he wanted it — with a state championship on the line. 

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