In a way, landing at Oral Roberts and entering the 2023 NCAA baseball tournament as a number four could not have been more fitting for Colorado native Jonah Cox. Coming out of Flatirons Academy, Cox was not the heaviest recruited player and wound up starting his college career at Butler Community College in Kansas. He chose Butler, in large part, due to the fact his oldest brother worked there. Then, two weeks before Jonah made it to campus, his brother accepted a job at a Division II school. While the younger Cox could have easily chosen to go elsewhere, he stated, “I gave them my word” and he wasn’t going to back out of that.

While at Butler, Cox hit .387 and stole an incredible 49 bases in just 53 games. This naturally caught the eye of more schools, and he chose to move to another junior college, Eastern Oklahoma State College, where he felt the coaching staff was better suited to help him reach his ultimate goal, becoming a professional baseball player.

While at Eastern Oklahoma he improved as a hitter, hitting .431 in a less hitter friendly conference, and stole another 43 bags in 56 games. Cox had multiple options of Division I schools to continue his education and baseball career, but the decision to head to Oral Roberts in Tulsa, Oklahoma proved to be an easy one. He had another brother, Joshua, who played at Oral Roberts in 2022 and recommended the school to Jonah. “He knows me better than a lot of other people, he recommended it, said I’d love it, and I have!”

The move to Tulsa did not come with a guaranteed spot in the lineup. In fact, Oral Roberts had Mac McCroskey as their established starting shortstop, Cox’s natural position. After the fall of 2022, Head Coach Ryan Folmar sat Cox down and suggested he get some work in the outfield, something he did without hesitation as he just wanted to be in the lineup. Fast forward to June 2023, Cox not only found himself in the lineup every day, but he was also a key cog in the lineup for a team that became only the third number four seed since 1999 (when the college baseball tournament moved to it’s current structure) to make it to the College World Series. On top of that, Cox arrived in Omaha, the home of the College World Series, tied with the third longest hit streak in NCAA baseball history, 47 consecutive games.

When asked if he remembered which game began the hit streak, his answer spoke volumes as to his determination to help his team win. He stated “it was the game after DBU (Dallas Baptist University). It was a game we ended up losing at DBU, it was a close game. I remember that one because I think I struck out two or three times with runners in scoring position and that kinda eats away at my brain. We lose by one run, and you feel you didn’t help the team, that’s kinda a tough pill to swallow.” All pointing to the fact his focus is on helping the team win, as he talked about the last time he didn’t get a hit, not the start of a hitting streak. And while he did go 0-4 in that game with two strikeouts, they actually lost by three runs, meaning his two runners left on base still would not have necessarily changed the outcome of that game.

That hit steak did come to an end at 47 games during the first game in Omaha, a game Oral Roberts wound up winning over TCU 6-5. Unfortunately, TCU did get their revenge four days later, beating Oral Roberts and ending their season.

Now Cox turns his attention to July 9^th through the 11^th, where he will hear his name called in the MLB draft in Seattle, Washington. He won’t be the top prospect and likely won’t be the first pick by whatever team ultimately drafts him, but that won’t slow him down. He is a player that seems to thrive when considered an underdog, so don’t be surprised to see him in Major League Baseball before too long and who knows, maybe he puts together another special hit streak that captures the attention of baseball fans everywhere.

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