The pressure is off for this Prince Avenue junior who found home at Georgia Tech baseball

Junior Judson Hartwell already has his post-graduation plans locked down: Move to Atlanta and join the Georgia Tech baseball roster.

August 1 is when recruiters can start reaching out to students, and it wasn't long after that Hartwell knew for certain he wanted to be a Yellow Jacket, gratefully passing on the other Power Five offers he'd received. His reasoning for picking the school down the road was associate head coach James Ramsey, who's currently in his fifth year with the program.

"I think coach Ramsey is the best batting coach in the country and I honestly think [Georgia Tech] is the place I was meant to be," Hartwell said. "Coach Ramsey, he does such a great job with all the hitters there and I really think he could take my game to the next level. Again, I just think that is the place for me. As soon as I got on that campus, I really liked it. I loved everything about it."

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Prince Avenue Christian baseball coach Allen Osborne said that Ramsey did a great job of recruiting Hartwell. The second they could get in contact, they did, and they stayed on his trail, stayed in his ear, until he ultimately made the decision.

"A lot of people were calling, calling me and calling him and he just felt really at home at Georgia Tech," Osborne said. "He likes Russ Chandler Stadium, he likes Atlanta, he loves James Ramsey ... and Ramsey did an unbelievably great job. He follows him around, tracked him, communicated with him, with us as coaches, with his travel ball coaches. ... He just didn't feel warm and fuzzy at the other schools, ... the way he did at Georgia Tech. It's all about fit and he felt like he fit there."

It's a good feeling for Hartwell to have the next step in his journey already planned to the nines. The pressure is off and now Hartwell can focus on finishing his high school career with a bang. He plays a little bit of first and third base, as well as pitching.

Through 15 games, he currently has a .479 batting average after 48 at-bats, 16 runs, 23 hits, 25 RBI, five doubles and three home runs, along with a .567 on-base percentage and a .770 slugging percentage. On the mound, he's only allowed four hits and zero runs and tallied six strikeouts in five innings pitched, and, in the field, he's got 84 total chances, 73 putouts and five double plays, according to MaxPreps.

"It does feel good to know where I'm going to go, but obviously there's still a lot more work to be done," Hartwell said. "There's a lot of stuff that still has to go (right). Can't get hurt, don't want to get hurt of course, but it feels great to have a spot and know that's (on the horizon)."

Osborne has known Hartwell for about eight or nine years now, having had the privilege to watch him grow from "a pup," as he put it, into an outstanding player. He's an athletic leader with a good motor, a constant go-go-go mentality that's pushed him to be more vocal. He teaches to ensure understanding, and to ensure everyone is comfortable on the field when it's time to play the game.

Hartwell attributes a lot of his growth to having played football for the first two years of his high school career. Not only did he get bigger — he said he gained 40 pounds — but he also feels that he matured. He said if something went wrong, it used to throw him off, make him angry and ruin the game for him.

Now, when things go awry, he takes a deep breath and releases the jitters. It's important, for someone with so many eyes on him so young and a big plan in place, to be able to handle pressure and relax when the sky feels like it's caving in.

Hartwell is still out to improve every day. His focus is not only to be a good athlete for himself, but to be a good teammate for his friends, for his parents and for his future.

"I owe a lot to these guys, and I feel like they deserve everything," Hartwell said. "These guys are out there with me every day, supporting me and doing everything they can to be the best teammates for me."

Hartwell can officially sign his name on the dotted line and become a Yellow Jacket on November 13.

"The future was really, really bright for him as an eight-year-old and I think his future is even brighter now, as a 16–17-year-old kid," Osborne said.

Sara Tidwell covers Athens-area high school sports and University of Georgia athletics for The Athens Banner-Herald. Contact her at stidwell@gannett.com and follow her @saramtidwell on Twitter.

This article originally appeared on Athens Banner-Herald: Judson Hartwell on solidifying college plans with Georgia Tech baseball