NEW PALESTINE — Michaela Jones doesn’t need much. Far from superstitious, the free-and-easy New Palestine senior is typically game ready from the moment she steps on the diamond.
A vanilla latte before warm-ups is somewhat ritualistic, but she’s versatile. If Jones can’t get a hold of her choice java, then one can be substituted with a homemade regular coffee topped with cinnamon.
A refreshing pregame snooze is a plus, and then she’s set. Almost.
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“I’m definitely the least superstitious person you’ll ever meet,” Jones said. “I’ll be on deck and looking around to see where my batting gloves are. Sometimes, I lose track of them. Some people say, ‘I’m going to put my left one on first and then my right.’ And, I’m just trying to find them.”
A West Coast spirit with a Midwest upbringing, Jones epitomizes the definition of an imperturbable competitor.
“I nap before games, so I guess my superstition is I have to nap before my games and drinking coffee before,” Jones laughed. “If I can get my nap in, I get my nap in, but I always have my coffee before games.”
These days, Jones turns to her Keurig for added pep while in COVID-19 quarantine at home. But, once she’s lining up her swing and hitting off a tee in her family’s garage, it’s focus time.
Just as she has been for the defending Class 3A state champion New Palestine Dragons the past three seasons, Jones has her future in mind.
“I’ve been able to go to parks and working out some. Trying to make the best of it,” said Jones, a Maryland softball commit. “I’m lucky enough to have a setup in my garage, so I can hit some, and all my sisters play softball, so I workout with them and have them help me out.”
Though life threw Jones and the Dragons a curve ball this spring with the cancellation of the season due to the Coronavirus pandemic, the career .472 hitter isn’t sitting idly by despite the lost opportunity of a potential four-peat state championship run.
She’s back where her softball journey started with her family, especially her two sisters.
The middle child of Angela Phillips, Michaela sharpened her competitive edge by chasing after older sister, Mackenzie, and setting the pace for the youngest, Sara, an eighth-grader.
While Big Ten softball is in her near future, Michaela is savoring her time in the Hoosier State often throwing the ball around with Mackenzie, who is two years older.
The duo grew up together on the field through the Indy Diamond Chix travel club with Michaela often playing up an age group to compete with Mackenzie. The two joined forces as a battery in 2018 during New Palestine’s second of three consecutive state title seasons.
“She’s kind of the reason we all got into it. I played with her growing up, and I always played up, since she’s older than me, and I think that kind of helped me grow into the player I am today,” Michaela Jones said. “It made me more experienced. She helped me enjoy the game a lot more because I got to be with her, and she’s my best friend.”
The two were the difference in 2018 at Bittinger Stadium on the campus of Purdue University. Mackenzie, the Dragons’ ace, tossed a five-hitter through seven innings with seven strikeouts against South Bend St. Joseph during the 3A state championship game. Michaela delivered with a 3-for-3 performance and two RBI as New Palestine won 3-1.
“She had the big hit off the top of the wall at Purdue, and in that 3-1 game. That was the big hit for us, but that’s kind of what she did for us her whole career,” New Palestine softball coach Ed Marcum said. “She just would always come through in the clutch.”
The numbers stand up to her reputation. As a freshman in 2017, she hit .406 with 35 runs scored, 26 RBI, 15 doubles and seven home runs with the Dragons winning the program’s fourth state championship overall.
In her sophomore season, Jones posted a .569 batting average with 35 runs scored, 44 RBI, 15 doubles and 10 home runs. Last year, her home run totals jumped to 12 with a .446 batting average, 48 runs scored and 45 RBI.
“I go through my moments (as a hitter). Sometimes it feels natural, and sometimes I have to hit off the tee every day after games. I guess, it just depends. Hitting is always something you have to work on,” Jones said. “If you’re not working on it, you kind of get out of your groove. I feel like the more I work on it, the more I get in my groove and it feels natural.”
The same can be said about her defensive flexibility. A middle infielder with the Indy Diamond Chix and later the Birmingham Thunderbolts the past five years, Jones doesn’t limit her options.
She just wants to compete, even if it means trying something unfamiliar, like catcher.
Originally, Jones hoped to crack the varsity lineup in the infield her freshman year, but the depth chart was packed, which left her one choice: Learn something new.
“It was just me helping out at first, but I wasn’t half bad at it,” Jones reminisced. “(Marcum) asked me, but I kind of knew that it might be coming, so it wasn’t that big of a shock, but it was still weird, I guess, because it was something fun to do, just joking around catching. Then, I got in a game, and I was like, ‘Oh my gosh, it’s serious.’”
Jones spent countless practices on defense with assistant coach Alyssa (Marcum) Dillard, Ed’s daughter, to become accustomed to new vantage point. The constant was Mackenzie, and it motivated Jones to adapt quickly.
“I really enjoyed it. We were always together and able to bond. It just made me so comfortable knowing I was catching her. It made me feel more relaxed and it helped her a lot, too,” Jones said. “There was that trust between pitcher and catcher. I was an easy transition for me.”
Switching back over to shortstop last season didn’t take much coaxing either nor was her decision to head out east after graduation.
“She stepped right in. She never caught before, but we needed a catcher, and we needed a way to get her bat in the lineup. And, She was more than willing,” Marcum said. “After her sophomore year, Mic was pretty happy to give her catcher’s gear back to me, though.”
Winning won’t be an easy routine to forget for Jones, who started her high school career a state champion and ended it the same in 2019 with a powerhouse program that went 90-6 the past three seasons.
“We could have made history (this year), but it just stinks because you’ll never know what could have been,” Jones said. “I’ll for sure carry (my time at New Palestine) with me forever. Knowing that most people don’t even get to experience one championship, and I got to experience three, it’s incredible. I’m just so grateful I had amazing teammates and such an amazing program to be able to do that.”
The key is having the right mentality, and Jones has both the experience and persona to keep the trend going at Maryland.
With the Thunderbolts, Jones has become acclimated to travel, often spending weeks in the summer in Alabama training while trekking across the nation to play against elite competition.
“It’s kind of almost like a college ball team because I’m traveling with them. We travel in cars and stay together,” Jones said. “It’s been a good experience to get me prepared for college.”
As for her future after softball, Jones isn’t changing her resourceful philosophy. She plans to major in business marketing.
“I feel like it’s a versatile major, and I want to go into the business world, and it gives me a chance if I want to start my own business, I can,” Jones said. “It gives me options.”
Much like her family pets, Reba a “young and needy” Doberman and Luna, a “laid back” Springer Spaniel mix, Jones rolls with the situation.
“I’m able to play anywhere and adapt,” Jones said. “I do like Luna more. She’s like me.”
