Elon Baseball: Jones Snares Second Preseason All-American Honor

DALLAS, Texas – Coming off of a season in which he won league player of the year honors and was named an All-American by three organizations, Elon’s Casey Jones has grabbed his second preseason all-America honor, this one a first-team nod from the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA). Jones was also a first-team 2015 Louisville Slugger Preseason All-American.

Jones, who was a finalist for the 2014 Gregg Olson Award as the “Breakout Player of the Year” and Southern Conference Player of the Year, led the SoCon and ranked among the top five in the nation with a .418 batting average this year. He became just the third Elon player to finish with a batting average of .400 or better during the program’s NCAA Division I tenure. His SoCon-best .418 average was the highest by an Elon player since Jeff Kipila batted .438 in 1988.

Jones won Elon’s triple crown by also pacing the Phoenix with seven homers and 53 RBI. He also led the league with a .668 slugging percentage, .502 on-base percentage, 82 hits and 20 doubles.

Over the course of the season, Jones put together a 26-game hitting streak, a program-best at the Division I level. In fact, the Midlothian, Va., resident recorded at least one hit in 47 of the team’s 53 games. He also reached base safely (walk, hit or hit-by-pitch) in 51 of the 53 outings.

Following the 2014 campaign, Jones earned second-team All-America honors on the Louisville Slugger and Rawlings/ABCA teams and third-team All-America distinction by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association (NCBWA) and was a NCCSIA All-State honoree.

Jones and the Phoenix will open up the 2015 season on Friday, Feb. 13 at 4 p.m. vs. Penn State.

2015 NCBWA Preseason All-Americans (First Team)
SP – Kyle Funkhouser, Louisville
SP – Blake Fox, Rice
SP – Carson Fulmer, Vanderbilt
SP – Walker Buehler, Vanderbilt
SP – Nathan Kirby, Virginia
SP – Casey Bloomquist, Cal Poly
RP – Riley Ferrell, TCU
RP – David Berg, UCLA
RP – Bryan Garcia, Miami
RP – Matt Ditman, Rice
C – Zack Collins, Miami
1B – Eric Gutierrez, Texas Tech
2B – Jake Noll, Florida Gulf Coast
3B – Ty France, San Diego State
SS – Dansby Swanson, Vanderbilt
OF – Casey Jones, Elon
OF – D.J. Stewart, Florida State
OF – Bryan Reynolds, Vanderbilt
OF – Joe McCarthy, Virginia
UT – Jacob Cronenworth, Michigan