Thompson’s No. 1-ranked Class 7A baseball team has been to the Bob Jones baseball field in Madison already this year and left with a 7-2 decision in a “playoff atmosphere without being a playoff game.” On Friday, the Warriors will be welcomed back by the Patriots and their rabid fans with the season on the line.

“Playing at home gives us a slight edge,” No. 5 Bob Jones head coach Jared Smith said. “Thompson has only lost five games. That’s it. But, fortunately, all five were on the road. I hope that helps a little bit. To win 34 games, they have won a lot on the road, too.

“I told our kids our first game was a playoff atmosphere without being a playoff game,” he said. “It’s kind of funny that it worked out that we match up in the playoffs. We got a taste, now we’ll play one that matters.”

Bob Jones will carry a 35-10 record into a quarterfinal playoff doubleheader beginning at 5 p.m. Friday with an if-necessary game scheduled for Saturday at 1 p.m.

“It was a great atmosphere,” Thompson second-year coach Frankie Perez said of the regular-season meeting. “There were a bunch of people there with fans going crazy for Bob Jones. They have a section behind home plate that kind of likes to run their mouths, but I liked to experience that, so we know what we’re walking ourselves into.”

Perez’ first Thompson team as head man – he spent eight years as an assistant in Alabaster before one year as head coach at Montevallo and four at Hazel Green, where he led the Trojans to a state title in 2018 – the Warriors finished 19-19.

“One of the key factors this year is we’re mentally tougher,” he said. “We spent a lot of time this off-season in the fall, not so much working on our bodies but working on our minds. We read books together. We listened to podcasts together. We came up with team commandments and a team motto. It was player owned.

“This is the only game that you get to fail 70 percent of the time and still be pretty awesome. You can’t complete three out of 10 tackles or make three out of 10 free throws and still play. But, if you can handle that mental aspect of baseball, you can be pretty good.”

The coach also said his squad was obviously more experienced and more physically mature. “We started sophomores last year and this year, their bodies look different. They hit growth spurts. It’s just human nature.”

Thompson is 20-2 when Perez starts a senior on the mound, he said. “We always have a chance when we have a senior on the mound.”

Landon Alton is 7-1 with a 1.03 earned run average for the Warriors. Zach Wyatt is 6-1 with a 1.90 ERA and Ben Pearman is 3-0 with a 1.50 ERA.

Second baseman Peryn Bland leads Thompson at the plate, batting .391 with 47 runs scored and 25 RBIs. Tucker Arrington is batting .380 with 35 runs scored, 27 RBIs and he has been hit by a pitch 28 times – two away from an AHSAA single-season record. Drake McBride, an All-State performer last season at designated hitter as a sophomore, has seven home runs to match his output from 2022. He is batting .300 with 36 RBIs and has scored 34 runs.

McBride and Bland are headed to Troy and five other Warriors have committed to play ball in college, Perez said.

Senior Sam Mitchell, headed to the University of Alabama, is the ace on Bob Jones’ pitching staff. The 6-foot-6, 210-pounder is 10-1 with a 1.80 ERA. “He’s been our No. 1 for two years,” Smith said. “He was our No. 2 as a sophomore and had experience in the playoffs. He gives us a chance to win whenever he’s out there.”

Mitchell has set a school single-season records for wins this year and with 124 strikeouts. He also holds the career win record with 22.

Ben Arn, who committed to Southern Union Community College on Monday, carries an 8-1 record with a 1.56 ERA into this weekend’s games. “He’s a crafty lefty. He’s not going to blow you away, but he can throw three pitches for strikes and he competes really hard,” Smith said.

Junior Braden Booth, who is committed to Mississippi State, is 6-1 on the mound and has a 3.96 ERA. “He was kind of shaky early,” the coach said, “but the last two or three starts he’s been lights out. Saturday with the season on the line (in a 10-2 first-round Game 3 win over Chelsea) he threw a complete game two-hitter on 85 pitches with no walks. I think all three of our guys had 10 strikeouts.”

Smith said his Patriots are hitting .305 as a team and have blasted 30 home runs. “We’ve got several guys who can run a ball out,” he said. “Anybody in our lineup can hit a three-run homer at any time, so we don’t feel like we’re ever out of it. It’s best to be ahead, but our offense is built to score a lot of runs at any point.”

Senior shortstop Nate Mayfield, headed to Coastal Alabama-East, had a Game 3 home run last week. “He’s having a phenomenal year for us,” Smith said. “He’s one of our two leaders with six bombs and he can steal bases. He’s batting over .300 and is the first guy out at practice. We need him to be good this weekend because we go as he goes.”

Patriots center fielder Sammy Vander Hill, headed to VMI next year, “catches everything in the outfield. He hits second for us and has four home runs. He can really run. I think he’s got 15 or 16 stolen bases.

“Booth and Mitchell are two of our top hitters, too. Booth leads off and Sam hits fourth. We’re really solid 1-4 and settled in those spots. Our 5-9, we’ve moved around and a lot of them hit it well, too.

“Unfortunately, Thompson is exactly the same. Usually in high school, if you’ve got four or five guys who can hit, you feel good about getting the others out. Thompson feels really good about the guys hitting 6-9 and so do we. You can’t let up. Our 6-9 guys would be batting 1-4 for a lot of teams.

“We’re a talented team, but they are, too,” Smith said. “I told our team that whoever plays best over two days will advance. We are comparable in our top three pitchers. We are comparable in our hitters. We’re really athletic and similar teams.”

Perez is confident in his team’s chances at earning the right to meet the winner of the Vestavia Hills-Spain Park series in next week’s semifinals.

“I feel like if Bob Jones plays their best and we play our best, we’ll win,” Perez said. “That’s a good feeling. That being said, if Bob Jones plays their best and we don’t, we’ll get beat.”

Neither team has ever won a baseball state title.

This weekend’s Class 7A schedule:

CLASS 7A QUARTERFINALS

Smiths Station (23-14-1) vs. Baker (24-15), Friday, 4 and 6:30 p.m. (Game 3, Saturday, 1 p.m., if necessary)

Central-Phenix City (29-8) at Enterprise (23-12), Friday, 4:30 and 7 p.m. (Game 3, Saturday, noon, if necessary)

Spain Park (28-7) at Vestavia Hills (28-9), Friday, 4:30 and 7 p.m. (Game 3, Saturday, 1 p.m., if necessary)

Thompson (34-5) at Bob Jones (35-10), Friday, 5 and 7:30 p.m. (Game 3, Saturday, 1 p.m., if necessary)