Lifelong friends to celebrate Senior Day together on Saturday
05/02/2019 | 10:08:00 | Softball
Brianna Jones and Jordan Spicer will be honored after Saturday's softball doubleheader against Bradley.
CARBONDALE, Ill. — Seniors Brianna Jones and Jordan Spicer will be honored following the Saluki softball team's doubleheader against Bradley on Saturday, May 4. For the duo, it will be the culmination of a friendship that began over a decade ago on a softball diamond at Cane Ridge Park in Nashville, Tenn.
The two went to high school 85 miles apart as Spicer went to Beech High School in Hendersonville, Tenn., while Jones attended Coffee County in Manchester, Tenn. A shared interest in playing travel ball brought them together for the first time when they were 10.
"We were both trying out for Worth 97," Spicer said. "That's when we started to play for Keith Perry, who we both ended up playing for until we came to college."
The success began to pile up almost instantaneously. They helped the Tennessee Fury capture the U-14 American Softball Association National Championship in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. The Fury went a perfect 10-0 at the national tournament and bested a field that featured 114 teams from 30 states. Jones was the winning pitcher in the Fury's 3-2 walk-off win over Team Arizona in the championship game, as she allowed just two runs on five hits while striking out seven to help the Fury become the first team from Tennessee to win an ASA U14 national title.
"I remember feeling pure excitement," Spicer said of winning a U-14 National Championship. "We never thought something like that was going to happen. You never really think you're that good until you're actually that good."
With eight of the 12 players from the U14 national championship still on the roster, the Fury again struck gold two years later, winning an ASA 16-under Gold National Championship in Broken Arrow, Okla. with a 10-2 record.
The Fury had their backs against the wall for most of the tournament, as they had to play four games on Saturday, July 26, 2014- a day in which temperatures reached 100 degrees- to advance to the championship game against the Tulsa Elite.
Trailing 7-2 in the sixth inning of their fourth game of the day, the Fury struck for four runs to make it a one-run game. In the seventh and down to their last strike, a RBI-single extended the game. The Tulsa Elite pushed across two runs in the top of the eighth, but the Fury countered with three runs in the bottom of the inning, highlighted by a rally-starting single by Spicer that helped seal the win.
Like most high school student-athletes their age, Jones and Spicer began the strenuous process of picking a college. The duo harbored hopes of getting to go to the same school and cherished the thought of getting to be roommates. That dream was put on hold, however, when Jones chose Southern Illinois University over nearby Middle Tennessee State while Spicer agreed to play for Belmont University in Nashville, Tenn.
"The day I took my unofficial visit to SIU was the day I committed to play for Kerri," Jones said. "I went back home that night and went to our coach's house because we were really close with his wife and kids. Jo met me there and I remember she cried when I told her I committed to SIU because she wanted us to go to school together."
For Spicer, the thought of her friend being so far away was too much pain to bear.
"We were only like three hours apart but back then I remember thinking, "that's so far away, I'm never going to get to see you!" Spicer said.
Both experienced their fair share of success early in their collegiate careers. Jones went 23-11 with a 1.92 ERA as a freshman and, in 2017, helped SIU win its first MVC Tournament Championship since 1991 after she went 3-0 in the conference tournament, including the decisive win over UNI in the championship game.
Spicer, concurrently, was the only Bruin to start and play all 54 games during her freshman year. As a sophomore, she finished second on the team in home runs and helped Belmont win it's first-ever Ohio Valley Conference tournament game.
Spicer had grown unhappy at Belmont and a chance interaction with Jones alerted her to the potential of a spot opening up for her at SIU.
"I was in the bathtub and we were facetiming, just talking and Bri was like, 'hey, you should try to come to SIU," Spicer recalled. "Bri knew I was thinking of transferring so that was kind of how it all began. From then on, it seemed like God put every step of the way in perspective and let everything lead to SIU. Once a path is set for you, it means you have to do it. God isn't going to push you towards a path that he doesn't want you to take."
With all of her transcripts accepted, Spicer arrived in Carbondale in January of 2018 and promptly moved in with Jones. The two picked right back up where they had left off and have been practically inseparable. When they aren't playing softball or in class, they go shopping, cook meals together, play spike ball with their teammates and hang out like college students are inclined to do.
"She always wants to go shopping," Jones said of Spicer. "We run into a store to get something for her dog, Daisy, and we end up walking around the entire store."
"We have a route we walk," Spicer says of their shopping escapades.
"If we go into TJ Maxx, we have to go through the pocket books, the makeup, the hair stuff, the shoes, the dog stuff, the house stuff, then the cups," Jones continued. "My mom yelled at me because I have so many cups now."
Jones will go down as one of, if not, the best pitcher in program history. The Manchester, Tenn. native has set the program record for career wins and appearances and is narrowing in on SIU's all-time innings pitched record. She ranks top-five in program history in a litany of other pitching categories as well as ranking top-10 in Missouri Valley Conference history for many of the same categories.
Spicer, meanwhile, has put together a strong senior campaign at the plate to back Jones. The Hendersonville, Tenn. native is currently hitting .308 and ranks third in a loaded Saluki lineup in both slugging percentage (.600) and home runs (6).
And while Senior Day will no doubt be an emotional day for both Jones and Spicer, the duo doesn't want to lose focus on the task at hand- next weekend's MVC Tournament, and hopefully, a trip to a NCAA Regional after that.
After that though, both will join the working world. Jones, who recently passed the first part of her dental hygiene boards, will likely begin her career as a dental hygienist.
"When I get out school I have to take my written board exam and once I pass that I can apply for my dental hygienist license," Jones said. "Hopefully then I can get a job that is close to my hometown, which is about an hour from Jordan. So we wont be far. Hopefully we don't get that much further apart."
Spicer, a communications major at SIU, plans to also return to Tennessee and find a job.
"Im going to move back home and try to find a job," Spicer said. "My boyfriend still has a year left at Belmont so he is going to be running and going to school for another year. Im just going to be hanging out with my family and cheering on my brother."
One thing the two know is that, no matter what, they will remain close. First pitch of Saturday's doubleheader vs. Bradley is set for Noon.
