When Missouri baseball called to offer a scholarship to senior infielder Josh Day, he did not believe it.

“Coach Butler called and said he was with Mizzou,” Day said. “I actually thought it was a joke.”

Todd Butler was the recruiting coordinator and one of the top assistants on Missouri’s staff in 2020. Butler, along with the rest of the staff, including head coach Steve Bieser, saw something in Day no other Southeastern Conference team did.

The SEC is the standard for college baseball. Six of the top-25 teams in the country all play in the SEC, including No.1 ranked Tennessee. While Josh Day eventually ended up in the conference, he took the long way to get there.

Day started playing T-ball when he was 4 years old, but he also played basketball and football, and his dad even tried to teach him golf. While he excelled in these sports, in the end, he made baseball his main focus.

“I made that choice because I thought about the long run and life after college,” Day said. “I just felt like I had a better chance at pursuing my dream of becoming a professional athlete in baseball.”

Day grew up in Natchez, Mississippi, where he went to school and played baseball at Adams County Christian School. During Day’s time there, the school did not hold baseball in high regard, limiting the amount of coverage he received from colleges.

“I was playing varsity baseball in seventh grade,” Day said. “My brother and I [made] the roster every year — they just didn’t take baseball seriously.”

While that may have affected his recruiting process, his name still made it onto a few top-prospect boards. Day only received two junior college offers out of high school and decided to play for Copiah-Lincoln Community College, located in Wesson, Mississippi.

Day described himself as raw talent during his first season at Copiah-Lincoln; He had skill but never a “real” baseball coach, so he had a lot to learn. While it took him time to adjust to an organized team, by the time the season began, he was a starter.

Day posted a .333 average during his freshman season, hitting four home runs and 31 RBIs. He also became a dangerous threat on the base paths, stealing 13 bases in his first year. He expected to improve his sophomore season, but his campaign ended early due to the COVID-19 shut down in 2020. Day played only 15 games his sophomore year and finished with a .267 average, while hitting three home runs and driving in 11 RBIs.

When his sophomore season was cut short, he was left to ask the question,

“My goal when I went to junior college was to get drafted,” Day said. “But once COVID-19 hit, I had a lot of downtime.”

During his downtime, Day started receiving calls from D1 schools across the country, including Louisiana Tech, Liberty and, of course, Missouri. The only other SEC school to reach out to him was South Carolina, but it never offered him a scholarship.

In the end, for Day, it was an easy decision. He had dreamed of playing baseball in the SEC, so Day chose Missouri. He wanted to go pro, but he also knew the benefits of starting for a team in the SEC.

“I had the opportunity to come play here and have an even better chance of pursuing my dream of playing professional baseball,” Day said. “When I got here, I realized it was a great decision. I got my name out there a little more, so it was the right decision.”

In his first season with the Tigers, Josh Day started 43 of the 44 games he appeared in. He averaged a .250 batting average, hit two home runs and knocked in 21 RBIs. Less than halfway through the season, he broke his hand while playing in the first game of the team’s series against Vanderbilt. Day missed the following six games but played the rest of the season with a broken hand.

After having surgery on his hand in the offseason, Day entered his senior season healthy as ever, and his successes reflect that. Day is averaging a .320 batting average, with six home runs, 24 RBIs and eight doubles while hitting from the leadoff spot and serving as a veteran presence in the dugout.

More important than Day’s statistics is his leadership. He is one of the team’s oldest players, and his philosophy is to lead by example.

“If I’m going to be a leader, I have to do the things right myself,” Day said. “I go by not just telling them how to do things, but I make sure I’m doing the things [that] I’m telling them to do.”

Day has surpassed most of his junior year statistics, and he still has 15 regular season games left in his senior season. The Tigers are more than halfway through their SEC schedule and they will need to finish the season strong if they want to earn a chance to play in the postseason. Day’s goal for Missouri the rest of the season is to continue to grow closer as a team.

“I want us to continue to be close with each other and have a good relationship on and off the field,” Day said. “I just really want us to go out and compete and have fun, and you have fun when you win. We just try to take it one game at a time and wherever it leads us, it leads us.”

Day’s decision to play at Missouri has already paid off. While working off the field to receive a business degree, he has also gained plenty of recognition as one of the SEC’s best leadoff hitters.

Day’s story does not end after this season. His goal is still to play professionally, and he has certainly given himself an opportunity to achieve that goal. Day feels confident he has done enough to play at the next level, but he tries not to think about getting drafted too much during the season — instead, he plays in the moment.

Day is one of the most recent junior college success stories, but many before him, including stars such as Jackie Robinson, Albert Pujols and Bryce Harper, took the same route. Day has worked himself into a great position and will have the opportunity to achieve his dreams as a professional baseball player during the MLB Draft July 17-19.

Edited by Brandon Haynes | bhaynes@themaneater.com