For Hull’s Joshua Fields, one celebration keeps getting interrupted by another.
After being named Stopper of the Year by the National Collegiate Baseball Writers Association last Wednesday, the hard-throwing University of Georgia reliever was taken in the first round by the Seattle Mariners (20th overall) the next day. Then, the diamond Dogs clinched another trip to the College World Series on Sunday.
All in all, it’s been a good stretch for Fields and his trusty 95 mph fastball.
“It’s just been beyond our imagination … I really don’t know what other words to describe it,” said Fields’ father, David.
Joshua Fields and the diamond Dogs play Miami Saturday in the opening round of the CWS in Omaha.
David Fields said the Mariners “have been great” to his son during this whole process. He noted that the club called to congratulate Joshua and check in with him, but other than that, “they’ve left him alone,” he said.
Fields said he won’t know the next step of his oldest son’s professional baseball career until the conclusion of the College World Series. The Mariners have said they want to stay out of the picture and let Joshua, who’s a client of agent Scott Boras, focus on the collegiate postseason.
“They said ‘we’ll talk to you when it’s over,’” said David Fields, whose younger son, Jake, is a rising junior at Jefferson and has been receiving overtures from some colleges.
Each passing Georgia victory and accolade for Joshua has made the decision to come back to UGA for his senior year all the more satisfying.
“Absolutely,” David Fields said. “We thought we had a plan for him to go out after his junior year.”
And Fields could have gone after his junior year, being taken in the second round by the Braves before opting to return for his senior collegiate season.
But Atlanta’s loss was UGA’s gain.
Fields, a Prince Avenue Christian School product, went 2-2 with a 2.27 ERA with 16 saves and was named an All-American this year. Opponents batted just .112 against Fields this year.
“We know that there’s no regrets,” David Fields said. “We know that was the right decision.”
Of course, many of those in Madison County who will watch Fields in the CWS will remember that wiry 16-year-old fire-baller who pitched for Madison County’s Senior League all-stars earlier this decade.
It’s already been six years since he helped guide that all-star team to a state championship and nearly a Senior League World Series appearance that summer.
“Those are memories that we’ll never forget,” said David Fields, who coached that team. “I’m looking at the plaque and banner as we speak.”
He said that group had played together ever since they were nine years old and knew they had potential for big things once they got older.
“Waiting to be 16 years old was something they all talked about,” David Fields said.
He says his son fondly recalls those years, too.
“To this day, he’ll say that playing with those guys was one of the best times he’s ever had,” Fields said.
Now, Joshua is 22 and on the verge of professional baseball stardom as a first-round draft pick.
If Joshua, the SEC’s all-time saves leader, makes it to the majors with Seattle, he would go from playing right down the road in Athens to playing in the Major League city that’s the furthest away geographically.
David Fields and family might accumulate some frequent flier miles.
“That will be a challenge,” his father said of the long distance. “We knew it would be.”
