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Former National Scouting Report prospect Austin Hays has been voted by Atlantic Sun Conference baseball fans as the league’s preseason Most Valuable Player.
That is quite an honor for Hays, a junior outfielder at Jacksonville University, who has played only one season of NCAA Division I baseball.
Hays, a 2013 graduate of Spruce Creek High School in Port Orange, Fla, opted to play a year of junior-college ball before transferring to a D-I school. That is not unusual in Florida, where there are dozens of junior-college programs. Many D-I coaches prefer to see a prospect start out at a junior college rather than sit the bench at their schools. Then, after one or two years at that level, they have a chance to advance to the D-I level.
Hays has had quite a baseball journey.
“I was undersized and under-recruited in high school,” said Hays, who now stands 6 feet 1 and 195 pounds. “We won the state championship my junior year and ended up being ranked as the No. team in the nation at one point. From there I was recruited to go to Seminole State College, where I played my freshman year and had a great season. I then played in the Florida Collegiate League that summer and won the MVP award and the home run derby.
“I came to JU last season and struggled for the first time in my baseball career but learned from my failures. After the season, I went to the Cape Cod League to play for the Hyannis Harbor Hawks for the summer. I had a great season and ended up making the All-Cape Team. Now I’m back at JU hoping for a great season this year.”
Hays’ biggest strength is his arm, said Dave Johnson, NSR area director in Daytona Beach.
“Austin has always had a big-league arm,” said Johnson, who discovered Hays at Spruce Creek. “When we shot his first skills video, his high coach said, ‘Watch this.’ From home plate, Austin threw the ball over the center-field fence some 410 feet away.”
According to his bio on the JU baseball website, Hays has the “strongest arm in the outfield.” During the 2015 season, he had an impressive 87 putouts.
“Austin was not a big kid coming out of high school, and was disappointed that he did not get drafted by [a major-league team], so he spent the whole summer working on body strength as well as his baseball skills,” Johnson said. “He said it was one of the best decisions he has made in is life. He now has all the tools to be successful at the professional level. His record [of accomplishments] backs that up. He is a great, humble and disciplined kid from a very supportive family.”
National Scouting Report is dedicated to finding scholarship opportunities for athletes who possess the talent, desire, and motivation to compete at the collegiate level. We’ve helped connect thousands of athletes with their perfect college.