When Bob Jones played Madison City Schools rival James Clemens in a three-game Area 8 series three weeks ago, it was a pressure-packed situation. The Patriots won 6-4 at home and 6-1 and 4-3 at James Clemens to earn the area championship.

When they play again beginning Wednesday, the stakes are at the second-highest level they could be. The winner of best-of-three series will claim a spot in the AHSAA Class 7A state championship tournament on May 14.

The Patriots will host James Clemens for the showdown at the Bob Jones baseball field – the “BOB” – with a doubleheader set for Wednesday with games at 5 and 7:30 p.m. If necessary, Game 3 will be at 5:30 p.m. on Thursday.

While coach Jared Smith gets the Patriots prepared on the field, Madison City administrators have gotten the ballpark in shape for the biggest games perhaps ever played there. “Our side holds about 200 people,” Smith said, “and the visitors’ side about 100. But they’ve brought in three large sets of transportable bleachers and we will have seating for over 1,000. Our hill will be full of people and trucks, too.

“We’ll have bleachers down the left-field line for the James Clemens folks and down the right-field line for us. I don’t think finding a seat will be a problem, but if you want to be right by the action, you might want to get there early.”

Bob Jones will carry a No. 1 ranking in the Alabama Sports Writers Association poll into the series. James Clemens is No. 9. The Patriots are 40-7 on the season while the Jets are 31-11 – the third time in four seasons that coach Johnny Johnson has led James Clemens to a school record for wins. James Clemens is in the final four for the first time in history – which started when the school was split from Bob Jones in 2012.

“We don’t have a lot of big-name talent,” Johnson said, “or a bunch of Division I scholarship guys. We’re more blue-collar, scrappy juco walk-on type guys. They relish that. They like to play the right way and fight for everything we get.”

James Clemens does have one D1 commitment in pitcher Luke Davenport. The senior right-hander has 45 strikeouts in 33.2 innings this year with a 4-1 record, two saves and a 2.91 ERA.

“Luke was coming off an injury headed into this season,” Johnson said. “He got off to a slow start and is finally back to full strength. Teams are hitting .195 against him. Last year, he put up silly numbers, but this year we’ve used him a lot in relief to build his innings up. He’s a complete pitcher. He throws hard, in the 86-90 (mph) range. A good deal of the reason he’s going to pitch for Auburn is his off-speed stuff. He spins the ball really well and had multiple pitches he can use.”

Last season, Davenport finished with a 1.07 ERA in 58.2 innings. He struck out 101, walked 36 and opposing hitters batted .151 against him.

The Jets have seven other players committed to play in college. Junior infielder/pitcher Ty Marsh has committed to Western Kentucky. These seniors have also declared their intentions to play in college: outfielder Carson Loosier with Calhoun Community College in Decatur; pitcher Mason Busch, Snead State in Boaz; catcher/first baseman JT Johnson (the coach’s son), Snead; lefty pitcher/first baseman/outfielder Satchel Wheeler, Snead; infielder Cisco Ramirez, Marion Military Institute; and outfielder/first baseman/outfielder Hayden Markfort, Marion.

“This big group of seniors has won a lot of baseball games since they were in middle school,” Johnson said. “I knew they loved to compete and knew how to win. You never know until they get on the varsity and see how things pan out. I knew going in we’d have a very competitive team, no matter who we played. It’s coming together at the right time here late in the season.”

James Clemens plays an aggressive style with the goal of putting pressure on its opponents. The Jets have stolen 192 bases this season.

“In 2021, we stole 204 bases,” Johnson said of the team that now stands eighth all-time in the AHSAA record book. “That’s the style of baseball we’ve coached for a long time now. We like to put pressure on the other teams and make 15- to 18-year-olds make quick decisions. You might not always have power or big arms, but if can create chaos you can make that work even if you’re not the most physically talented.”

Loosier leads the team at the plate with a .408 average with 45 stolen bases. He has also been hit by a pitch a team-best 21 times. James Clemens has 79 HBP thus far – another school record.

Senior designated hitter Ben Graves is batting .371 with a .469 on-base percentage and Markfort is batting .355 with 38 stolen bases and a .503 on-base percentage.

Sophomore Matthew Drinkwater is 7-0 on the mound with a save in 46.1 innings. He has struck out 47 and has a 2.42 ERA. Wheeler has 6-3 record in a team-best 53.2 innings. He has struck out 45 with a 2.74 ERA. Teams are hitting .198 against him. Sidearm-throwing Mason Busch is 4-2 with a save, a 3.04 ERA in 27.2 innings as a reliever.

Smith’s team is two wins away from tying the school record for victories, set in 2019 when the Patriots fell 2-1 in the state championship series to McGill-Toolen.

“These guys have just played really good with great leadership,” said Smith, who recorded his 300th win on March 16 with a 2-0 win over Hoover. “They have just meshed together well. They have exceeded our preseason expectations, but you’d never anticipate a season like this. They all pull for each other. The guys on the bench know their role, whether it’s to provide energy, pinch-hit or be a defensive replacement. We have 28 guys who all want to win no matter what it takes.”

Smith, who is 323-155 in his ninth season at Bob Jones after two years leading Dothan, said the players – and parents – know what the Patriots’ standard is. “We don’t have any guys who are selfish at bat or worried about their stats,” he said. “It’s a gritty group. We’ve trailed in many games, but they just never believed they were out of a game. They always think we can come back. They compete to the last pitch, whether we are up or down.

“I probably wouldn’t have predicted that we’d be 40-7, but I knew we would be good. We’ve probably have had more talented teams, team with more sheer talent – not to say we’re not talented – because we’ve had some really talented teams.”

Three Patriots seniors have signed college scholarships, Braden Booth with Mississippi State, Jacob Pearl with Montevallo and Gresham Baker with Bevill State Community College in Fayette. Junior catcher Zack Johnson is committed to the University of Alabama and outfielder/pitcher Dillon Adkins is pledged to the University of Tennessee.

Booth leads Bob Jones at the plate – with a .423 batting average – and on the mound, where he is 12-0 with 110 strikeouts and a 1.41 ERA. “He’s our only pitcher that you would consider overpowering,” Smith said, “but he pitches well, too. He throws three or four pitches in any count. He doesn’t just rely on velocity. He can throw a firm fastball.”

Junior Tanner Hermesch is 6-4 on the season with a 2.07 ERA and 76 strikeouts. Junior Jack Shaw is 7-0 with a 2.19 ERA with 49 strikeouts. “Hermesch and Shaw both can throw in the mid- to upper-80s,” Smith said. “They can command two to three pitches when they are pitching well.”

Bob Jones’ team ERA is 2.55 this season.

Johnson is batting .376 for the Patriots, Pearl is hitting .359 and Baker is batting .331. Booth leads the team with seven home runs while Johnson has five and Pearl with three.

Smith said meeting a rival in the semifinals has plusses and minuses. “On the positive side, we’ve had to do very little scouting. We’re very familiar with James Clemens. They are 5 miles away. We’ve scouted them numerous times, we play every year and played three weeks ago. Not a lot has changed,” Smith said. “The negative part is we have both seen each other and know what worked and what didn’t work. On our end, we beat them three times, but it’s really irrelevant this time. You can get in trouble thinking you’re going to win since we beat them before. They are playing as hot as anybody in the state.

“If we think we’re going to win on May 8 just because we won on April 18, then we’re in trouble. I hope our guys have moved on mentally and treat them just like any other opponent. I think they are handling it the right way.”

Smith praised Johnson’s squad for its style of play. “We just have to play our game,” he said. “We don’t have to do anything special, just play really good baseball. When you play James Clemens, you have to defend well. You have to control their running game. They are good at putting pressure on their opponent and they’ve really done that in the playoffs. They run, they steal, they hit-and-run. You can get down three runs in a hurry.

“If we handle it on the mound, we should be OK. (Catcher) Zack Johnson does a good job handling the running game and he did so in the last games. If we stay away from the freebies – the hit-by-pitches, walks – I think we’ll be OK.”

Johnson said he believes his Jets can be much better than they were in the losses in April to their neighbors – “when you leave here and make your fourth turn, you’re turning into their parking lot.”

“We’ve seen them three games and know it’s going to be a big-time atmosphere,” he said. “We know what’s coming. Two of our three games were really close. In the 6-1 game, a lot was self-inflicted. They are a good baseball team, don’t get me wrong, but there’s a lot we can do better than we did the first time we saw them. We’re playing much better ball than we were three weeks ago.

“Our guys are really confident going into this series.”