Millville's Cox lives up to his number

If the uniform made the player, instead of vice versa, Aaron Cox could pull on that blue jersey and head straight to the South Jersey baseball Hall of Fame.

After all, the last guy before Cox to wear No. 1 for Millville set a South Jersey record with 18 home runs, was a first-round draft choice by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, and is widely regarded as one of the best prospects in baseball.

But despite his close connection with Mike Trout - the gifted 20-year-old who has spent his first week in triple-A reminding the Angels that he belongs in their big-league outfield - Cox knows he has to wear his friend's old shirt in his own way.

On Tuesday, Cox made that locally legendary laundry look as good as ever.

On a clear, windy afternoon, Cox was the pitching, hitting, and fashion star of Millville's 2-0 victory over rival St. Augustine Prep in a Cape-Atlantic League clash of Top 5 teams.

The 6-foot-3 senior pitched a complete game, allowing just four hits and striking out nine. He also doubled, homered, and scored both runs for Millville (6-0), the No. 2 team in The Inquirer's South Jersey rankings.

"It's an honor just to have it on," Cox said of Trout's old jersey.

After Trout graduated in 2009, nobody wore No. 1 for the next two seasons. Millville coach Roy Hallenbeck said the school didn't officially retire the jersey but took it out of circulation.

"We didn't have but one [No. 1] left," Hallenbeck said. "One of them got cut up to put in baseball cards, and another one is hanging in the South Jersey Hall of Fame at the Riversharks' stadium [Campbell's Field]."

Before Millville played Lenape last season in the South Jersey Group 4 final, Cox said he made a proposition to Thunderbolts assistant coach Kenny Williams.

"If I win this game," Cox said he told Williams, "I get to wear No. 1 next year."

Cox allowed a three-run homer in the first inning, then shut down Lenape in a 4-3, complete-game victory.

"They didn't tell me about it until after the game," Hallenbeck said with a laugh.

Hallenbeck thought it was a good idea to allow a senior leader to wear the jersey every season. The coach said Trout thought the same thing.

"If you know Mike, you know that he doesn't want his jersey retired," Hallenbeck said.

Cox has a special relationship with Trout. Cox' sister Jessica has been dating Trout for several years.

"He's a great guy," Cox said. "He's real close with my family. He comes home and we hang out, go hunting and fishing."

Cox wriggled out of some early trouble against No. 4 St. Augustine (2-1), which stranded five runners in the first three innings. But he got stronger as the game got longer.

Mixing a darting fastball in the 83-85-m.p.h. range with a sharp curve, Cox retired 11 of the final 13 batters he faced. He struck out the side in the seventh.

"He's not afraid of anything," Hallenbeck said. "There's a mental toughness there that's not there with everybody."

Cox doubled and scored on Kenny Dunns' two-out single in the fourth. In the sixth, Cox roped a 1-0 pitch over the center-field wall and took that old No. 1 jersey on a familiar journey, on a slow trot around those same old bases.

The shirt didn't make the man. But on this day, the man made the shirt look even better.

St. Augustine   0000000 - 040

Millville   000101x - 241

WP: Aaron Cox. LP: Kevin Baxter. 2B: M-Cox, Calvin Clark. HR: M-Cox.