Sparkman High’s A.J. Causey Among Volunteers’ National Championship
HARVEST- A.J. Causey and the entire Volunteer Nation are on top. Rocky Top, that is. The former Sparkman High All-State baseball player just played a big part in the Tennessee Volunteers recent victory of the College Baseball World Series and claiming the school’s first Baseball National Championship.
Tennessee (60-13, 22-8-SEC) defeated Texas A&M in three games in its third visit in the last four years to the World Series.
The 6-foot-3, 205-pound junior righthanded pitcher, a Third-Team All-American for the 2024 season, finished with a 13-3 record with a 4.43 ERA, 125 strikeouts and allowing a .259 batting average in 91 innings, which was second on the team. His 13 victories were tied for first in the country. He was a huge performing newcomer to the Vols as a transfer from Jacksonville State, the school he signed with out of Sparkman in 2021.
At Sparkman, he was a two-way player playing catcher along with his duties on the mound. Current Sparkman head coach Ben Stevenson, who was an assistant coach for the Senators when Causey was a team member, said of young man’s talents, “He’s a great kid and came to us as a sophomore after being home schooled. He had an immediate impact with us as starting catcher and part-time pitcher. He was a great hitter, too.”
Once moving into his senior season at the school located on Jeff Road in Harvest, Causey chose to concentrate on just pitching and gave up his position as catcher for the Senators. “He also played some first base and was a designated hitter as he had very good bat talent,” added Stevenson. “One of the biggest impressions on me was his everyday workout ethic. After every workout he would walk up to all of the coaches, shake our hands and said thank you.”
Signing with Jacksonville State as a two-way player, he mostly pitched for the Gamecocks seeing action in 40 games in his freshman and sophomore seasons. He posted 147 strikeouts over the two seasons earning an overall 9-6 record. At the completion of his second season at Jax State, Causey, whose given names are Anthony Jordan, chose to enter the transfer portal where several SEC schools reached out to the enormously talented youngster. He made the rounds visiting several schools placing hundreds of miles on his car. He finally chose to stop in Knoxville where he became a Volunteer.
“His first game at Tennessee he came out of the bullpen, but soon began to start games,” said Stevenson.
In the first game of the College World Series in Omaha, Neb., Causey came in relief in just the first inning against the Aggies after the starting pitcher ran into trouble early on. Though he recorded five strikeouts over 3.2 innings of action, Causey did give up six hits and five runs before the Vols lost the game 9-5. Tennessee would bounce back with a 4-1 victory in game two before taking the title with a game three score of 6-5. Causey did not see any playing time in the remaining two games.
Tennessee was ranked No. 1 for most of the 2024 season partly because of an outstanding All-American performance by Anthony Jordan Causey who can now claim to be a National Champion.
