And most of all, learning how to handle his emotions when things didn’t go his way.

“I’m a lot more mature. I’m able to move from adversity and handle things a lot better. I’m able to command more pitches and throw a little harder. But the main thing is growing up a little bit.”

“When he played for us, his emotions got the best of him sometimes,” said Dusty Griffis, his high school coach at Loyola College Prep. “He’s gotten a whole lot better at seeing the game pitch by pitch instead of one big explosion. Nathan was such a hard worker and such a good baseball player that it didn’t affect his play or success. But it was a warning that if he didn’t control his emotions, it would affect him at higher levels.”

You might say this is Nathan Jones 2.0. But that might be oversimplifying things. And as he will tell you, things haven’t been that simple.

*   *   *

After winning the Southland Conference Tournament as the No. 3 seed, the Northwestern State Demons are in Corvallis, Ore., to play in the NCAA Regionals. Their first opponent will be the No. 3 team in the country – and the host team – the Oregon State Beavers.

Jones is scheduled to pitch in the third game – if there is one. The Demons are the fourth seed in the four-team regional, so the Demons will have to pull an upset for Jones to get a chance to pitch.

And if they do, it will certainly be a high-pressure situation for the right-hander. “I’m excited,” Jones said. “I’m ready to get out there and show everybody what we’ve got. We are playing bigger schools on bigger stages than we are used to, so I’m really excited. It’s the same game, just a lot more people watching.”

Not many people were watching Jones as he completed his high school career at Loyola. A pitching talent evaluator said Jones “only had 84 (miles per hour) in his arm” in projecting his development.

He was a solid pitcher for three years for the Flyers where he had 162 strikeouts in 161 innings. As a senior, he was 7-3 and was named to the Class 3A All-State team. But it wasn’t like colleges were beating down his door.

Including Northwestern State.

“After my junior year, they offered me a preferred walk-on spot, but I really didn’t feel like they were that interested,” Jones said. “I didn’t see myself playing much, so I went ahead and signed with LSUS. But in the summer after I graduated, I started throwing a little harder and they saw me in a tournament and offered me a scholarship.”

It didn’t take him long to make an impact on the mound for NSU, which surprised a lot of people. Namely, Nathan Jones.

In his first college game, Jones was the first reliever used by the Demons against Alabama State in a 1-1 game. “That was a shocker,” he said.

Jones entered the game in the eighth and kept pitching as the Demons won in 10 innings. Jones got the win.

Think that was special? Try this: In his third college appearance, the Demons were at Arizona to play the Wildcats. Jones was called in from the bullpen to pitch the final two innings and hold a 6-4 Demon lead. Jones faced six batters and retired all six to record his first save.

That same Arizona team went on to become the College World Series runner-up that season.

Jones would move into a starting role as a sophomore, but he and the Demons suffered through a tough year. Jones was 4-8 with a 4.86 ERA. He led the team in innings and strikeouts as the Friday night starter but the Demons were 20-34 overall and went nowhere.

Jones returned as the Friday night starter in 2018 and had a couple of good starts to begin the season. But for the next month, things began to change. He lost three out of four starts and only lasted 3 1/3 innings in the other game.

Then came a change that turned his season around. Jones was moved from the Friday starter to the Sunday starter for Northwestern State. “I started to feel like everything was starting to come together after that,” Jones said.

The results were immediate. His first game as the Sunday starter was against Southeastern Louisiana, and Jones pitched a complete game with 10 strikeouts.

“The change made me take a step back and look at everything and re-evaluate myself,” Jones said. “It made me work a lot harder, and I changed my whole approach. I did a lot of research and studying and extra time on the field. It’s seemed to pay off.”

In other words, his hard work has paid off. Which doesn’t surprise Griffis in the least.

“He is, by far, the epitome of hard work paying off,” he said. “He is the hardest working kid I have had in 15 years of coaching. I could not be more proud of him. But for him to have the success that he has had because of hard work makes you even more proud.”

“I learned a lot of from the older guys when I got here as a freshman,” Jones said. “It taught me a lot of things. How to handle failure and handle emotions the right way. I set my goals really high. Unreasonably high. I’m just trying to do my absolute best to try to get the goals I’ve set. I’ve had a good year, but everyone has had a good year.”

There is also the chance that Jones might get a phone call next week during the Major League Draft. “If I’m blessed enough to get a chance to play at the next level, that would be great,” he said. “It’s something every little kid has dreamed about. But right now, I’m just focused on this regional.”