Bob Jones Baseball home opener Friday

The Bob Jones Patriot baseball team will play a doubleheader Friday night in the regular season home opener. The first game will start at 4:00 p.m. against Thompson and a game against Grissom will follow at 6:30 p.m. at Patriot Field.

It’s been a long offseason for the baseball team.  Last season a thrilling comeback series win over Sparkman sent the Patriots to the second round of the state playoffs where they lost to a Huntsville team that went on to win the state championship. This year head coach Dan Bell thinks he has the right mix of players to get to the state championship series held in Montgomery in May. 

Bell will field an experienced team that has seven seniors who have already inked baseball scholarships to play in college.  The group is headed by three outfielders and a pair of dominating right handed starting pitchers.

Center fielder Sean Leitstein will be flanked by Austin Sanders and Patrick Mullin. All of them have signed scholarships. The infield will be anchored by third baseman Luke Pearce. One newcomer is catcher Matt Sanders, a sophomore catcher. First baseman Nate Nelson will be counted on also.

Seniors Charlie Weaver and Trey Wingenter are the co-number one pitchers on a deep staff. Both are right-handers. Weaver has signed with UAH and Wingenter has signed with Auburn.

The team got some warmup games in over the weekend at the Athens/East Limestone Preseason Tournament and went 6-0. It’s early but several players are hitting over .500 already.

“We got some areas we would like to improve in but I like where our guys are right now,” said Bell. “We’re ready to get going. The guys are excited about what the season holds. We just got to get better and better every day and by area play be playing the best baseball we have played all year.”

Bob Jones will compete is Class 6A Area 15 with Florence, Decatur, and Austin High Schools.

“Most of these guys played a lot for us last year,” added Bell.