As brothers four years apart, future Georgia State baseball standouts Justin and Cameron Jones grew up playing in the family backyard in Kathleen, Ga.
 
Life has a way of coming full circle because the Los Angeles Angels minor league infielder and the GSU freshman pitcher-outfielder are back in Kathleen, playing ball in the yard.
 
THE FARM HAND
 
One of the top players to wear the Panther Blue, Justin Jones was a four-year starter at shortstop who ranks sixth or higher in GSU history in career hits, runs scored, doubles, walks, games and at-bats. He set school records for sacrifice bunts and fielding assists.
 
Also an outstanding student, Jones is Georgia State's only three-time CoSIDA Academic All-America in any sport, finishing with a grade point average of better than 4.0.
 
Following his senior season, he signed a free agent contract with the Los Angeles Angels and is entering his third season professional season in the Angels' farm system.
 
The effects of the COVID-19 pandemic have hit minor league players particularly hard because of the cruel economics of professional baseball. While Major League players can earn lavish seven, eight or even nine-figure contracts, minor leaguers toil for extremely low wages. High draft picks can receive a large signing bonus to help supplement their income in the minors, but later picks and free agents like Jones don't have that luxury.
 
"It's tough," Jones said. "Obviously we don't get paid the entire off-season. We head out there for spring training for a month and we don't get paid for that either, which is challenging. They reimburse us for our gas and give us a little of money for food and housing. It's definitely challenging, but I guess that's just part of the grind."
 
To help cut his living expenses during the season, Jones purchased a camper that was to be his residence all spring and summer and headed to the Angels' complex in Tempe, Ariz.
 
"I made the 27-hour drive across the country, pulling a camper behind me," he said. "I got there early, around March 5, and we had some light workouts those first few days. The day all the position players arrived, I think it was March 11 or 12, was the day things started to get serious. We weren't sure what was going to happen.
 
"We didn't really know much at first, but eventually they had a team meeting where they encouraged everyone to go home," he continued. "I waited it out for a few days. Then our director of minor league operations called and said, 'We're sending everyone home.'"
 
Another 27-hour drive back to Middle Georgia.
 
In addition to the abrupt interruption of his minor league season and the cancellation of his brother's college season, Justin has been affected in another way.
 
His fiance, Amber Coy, is a senior softball player at Georgia College, so of course, her season and college career ended prematurely.
 
"One cool thing is that in the last game she got to play in, she hit a walk-off," Jones explained, describing Amber's RBI-single that gave Georgia College a 2-1 victory over West Georgia. During his own college career, he hit two game-winning home runs and drove in the game-winning run in extra innings five times.
 
After getting engaged last summer, Justin and Amber set their wedding date for September 2020, a few weeks after the normal end of the minor league season.
 
"There's talk of the minor league season being pushed back, so I might have to take a few days off in September," he said.
 
THE FRESHMAN
 
Although he followed his brother's footsteps to Georgia State, Cameron Jones hopes to carve his own legacy as a left-handed pitcher and outfielder.
 
In the first four weeks of the season, he was able to make an impact both on the mound and at the plate. On Opening Day, Cameron finished the Panthers' walk-off victory over Cincinnati with 1-2/3 innings of scoreless relief. Not only did he earn a victory in his collegiate debut, but he pitched the extremely rare "Immaculate Inning" in the top of the 10th - nine pitches, nine strikes, three outs.
 
One day later, he pitched two more scoreless innings to earn his first save against St. John's.
 
He had a few more memorable moments in the Panthers' three-game sweep of North Alabama. In Friday's walk-off, he was at the plate when the winning run came home on a wild pitch. In Sunday's 3-1 win, he pitched two scoreless innings in the sixth and seventh innings and then broke a 0-0 tie with an RBI-triple in the bottom of the seventh, earning himself another win on the mound.

His final season line will read: 2-1 record, 1 save, 1.00 ERA, .107 average against, 12 strikeouts in 9.0 innings, part of a strong group of freshman hurlers who helped the Panthers to a 9-7 start in head coach Brad Stromdahl's first season.
 
Cameron is trying to focus on the positive during this unprecedented time.
 
"It's not actually a bad experience for me," he said. "I was able to get my feet wet. It was fun to see what college baseball is all about. It's definitely a lot different from high school. The game is a lot faster, and the players are a lot stronger. There's more thinking behind the game than you would ever think there is.
 
"I had a pretty good start this year, but I want to get bigger, faster, stronger so I can do even better next year."
 
 
TEAM JONES
 
As the sports world waits, Justin and Cam do the best they can to practice their craft and stay in shape.
 
"We scrapped together all the fitness equipment and all the dumbbells we have, so those are set up in the garage now, and we work out there," Justin explained. "We are in the process of putting up a batting cage in the backyard. We used to have one growing up, but we got rid of it.
 
"We throw together, we work out together, and once we get this batting cage up, we'll be kind of set."
 
Cameron even has a new catcher for his throwing sessions.
 
"I caught his bullpen yesterday," Justin said. "I suited up in catching gear, which is really funny. When I got out to spring training this year, the Angels were doing some projects with a couple of guys to increase our value. I was one of those guys, and they said, 'Hey we want to see if you can catch." So I was ready for it."
 
Cameron added his perspective. "That was definitely one of the strangest bullpens I've had, throwing to my brother. He's actually not too bad back there."

And Cameron appreciates that he is lucky to have a workout partner who happens to be a pro ball player.
 
"It's awesome having someone who's on the same mission as me and on a higher level," Cameron continued. "The best part is we can compete against each other and push each other to be better."
 
So it's just like old times.
 
"We are definitely using the family as our practice team now," Justin said. "We grew up doing that, along with our older brother Trent. The dynamic is a little different now because we have Trent's two babies here, so we have to schedule our games around naptime."