Joshua Jones

Joshua John Rueda Jones
(Josh)

• Throws Left
• Height 5' 10", Weight 170 lb.
• School University of West Alabama, Colby Community College
• High School Kagman High School

• Born January 29, 1993 in Saipan Northern Mariana Islands

BR Register page

Biographical Information

Joshua Jones pitched for the Northern Mariana Islands national team.

Jones won four championships with his high school volleyball team as well as three baseball titles and two basketball titles. He helped the Northern Mariana Islands win Gold in the 2010 Micronesian Games.

In the 2011 Pacific Games, he was absolutely dominant. In their opener, he faced defending Gold Medalist Palau and threw a four-hit shutout, fanning 14 and walking two. Kalson Dulei dueled him evenly until the Northern Mariana Islands scored in the bottom of the 9th. Against two-time Gold Medalist Guam, he scored the go-ahead run in the 6th, pinch-hitting and drawing a walk from Tommy Morrison before coming around to score; Guam rallied to win, though. He started in right field against American Samoa then closed out the win, relieving Thomas Joab Jr. and striking out the side on 11 pitches - Leuma Fualefau, Pemerika Mahuka and Daniel Va'a. He relieved Elton Santos with a 1-1 game against Fiji and got the win over Sanail Colainima, fanning five of six batters (only Rupeni Batai made contact) as his team rallied to win.

He then began a marathon stretch on September 7. First, he relieved Santos with a 5-5 tie against New Caledonia and got the victory over Sébastien Lepouriel with three 1-2-3 innings, fanning three. The only batter who reached was Christophe Jajha. Later that day, he again shut down the defending champs. He walked one (Dulei) and allowed only one hit (to Melngis Uchel) while striking out 11 to cruise to victory over Royce Sadang. Through the round-robin phase, he had pitched 24 of his team's 54 2/3 IP, allowing only five hits, four walks and no runs while striking out 36, going 4-0. He was also 1 for 4 with two walks and three runs on offense. He was first in the round-robin in ERA (Santos was also at 0.00, in 15 2/3, though he had given up four unearned runs), IP (1 1/3 ahead of Colainima), strikeouts (13 ahead of Santos), wins (Jacques Levy and John Pangelinan tied for second at two) and games pitched (five, one ahead of Colainima). He was second in opponent average, as Freddy Cepeda Jr. had pitched a no-hitter in his lone start for Guam. After 36 innings in the prior 9 days and 152 pitches two days prior, he was back in action in the Gold Medal Game against Guam, relieving Vicente Cepeda Jr. with a 4-3 lead in the 3rd. He closed out a 8-4 win, throwing 121 more pitches for 273 in a three-day period. Not quite as sharp after all that work, he was still pretty good (1 R, 6 H, 4 BB, 6 K in 6 2/3 IP) to beat Freddy Cepeda Jr. For his dominance, he was named the North Marianas Amateur Sports Association's male athlete of the year.

Coming to the mainland for junior college, he had a 6-4, 3.25 record as a freshman and 5-1, 2.80 as a sophomore with over a strikeout per inning. He transferred to Western Alabama and posted a 5-1, 3.25 record as a junior. He was 7-0 with a 3.86 ERA as a senior, tying for 9th in the Gulf South Conference in wins and finishing his collegiate career at 23-6.