Cubs select Jones in 9th round

The Citadel Sports Information Citadel catcher Richard Jones was chosen by the Chicago Cubs in the ninth round of the Major League Baseball draft on Wednesday.

By TREVOR ZION BAUKNIGHT
Item Sports Writer
TBauknight@theitem.com

Citadel All-American catcher Richard Jones, a former standout at Wilson Hall and for the Sumter P-15's American Legion baseball team, was drafted in the ninth round by the Chicago Cubs organization on Wednesday in the Major League Baseball First-Year Players draft.

Jones, who said on Monday that he wasn't expecting much from the draft and didn't plan to keep up with it, was selected 290th overall in the draft.

On the road Wednesday in Asheboro, N.C. with his team, the Thomasville, N.C. Hi Toms of the wood bat Coastal Plain League, Jones wasn't available for comment on Wednesday.

He started playing with the Hi Toms last summer and is fine-tuning his skills at the plate with the same organization again this season. He is batting a modest .171 for the Thomasville, but leads the team in home runs with two and in RBI with 7.

Jones was one of three Bulldogs selected on the second day of the draft, with Chris McGuinness going in the 13th round to the Boston Red Sox and Matt Crim going in the 21st round to Atlanta.

He led the Bulldogs in 2009 with 17 home runs, a mark that ties the school's single-season record. Jones shares the record with Chip Cannon, who was the last Citadel player to be drafted in the first 10 rounds, going in the eighth in 2004. He is the second Bulldog selected by the Cubs.

Jones hit .378 for the Bulldogs as a junior with 69 runs batted in, 54 runs scored. He had 95r hits, tying teammate Bryan Altman for 12th in the nation. He earned All-Southern Conference honors as a catcher in 2009 after earning that same distinction as a freshman designated hitter in 2007.

After setting the P-15's single-season home run record at 17, Jones put together a phenomenal freshman season that included being named to the Louisville Slugger Freshman All-American team chosen by Collegiate Baseball magazine and was the SoCon Freshman of the Year.