Charles Prince

The North Jefferson News



Former Mortimer Jordan pitcher Justin Aaron will continue his college baseball career as he recently signed a scholarship to play for Montevallo.

Aaron had played this past spring for Jefferson State Community College, he has one more year at Jeff State before he moves onto Montevallo in the 2008-09 school year.

“I wanted to sign early and get it out of the way,” Aaron said. “It’s harder to pitch when you know you have to preform to get a scholarship. Now this is out of the way, so next spring and I can out and just concentrate on my pitching.”

Aaron, a 6-foot-1, 205-pound right-hander compiled a 8-3 record this summer with a 2.87 ERA for Jeff State. He struck out 57 batters in 91 innings of work this year.Included in the eight wins, were some key wins against conference foes that helped Jeff State to the AJCAA state tournament. The key victories didn’t go unnoticed.

“An assistant coach told me that some college scouts had asked about me after I had a good spring,” Aaron said. “He told me I’d likely start getting some calls and offers. Pretty soon my home phone and cell phone were ringing and I got offers.”

Aaron didn’t take long to make up his mind on where he wanted to continue his education once he heard from Montevallo.

“They’ve got a great program,” Aaron said. “They’re a Top 25 Division II program. Their winning tradition and their coaching staff were what made me want to sign. When you get such a good offer from a outstanding program so close to home, you just can’t turn it down.”