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Tournaments  | Story  | 3/3/2022

Bob Jones Starts Hot At Showdown

Blake Dowson     
Photo: Sam Mitchell (Perfect Game)
Bob Jones vs. Daphne Box Score

HOOVER, Ala. -- Bob Jones High School’s Sam Mitchell was given a 4-0 lead before he even stepped on the mound at the start of the PG High School Showdown in Hoover, Ala.
 
Part of that was his doing, with a sharp single of his own through the left side that pushed the score to 4-0. Before that, Braden Booth singled, Cj Bush hit a sacrifice fly to start the scoring, and Fisher Moss sat back on a breaking ball and laced it to right field to score Booth and Ryan Revera, who walked after Booth.
 
Four was all Bob Jones ended up needing – although certain moments during the game pushed the limits on that – and they went on to win their opener against Daphne High School, 8-3.
 
“We’ve been so hit-or-miss, and we’re so close to being a really good team,” Bob Jones Head Coach Jared Smith said. “We talked this week about, ‘Hey, guys are going to have bad weekends, but we can’t have five or six guys all have bad weekends.’ I thought we did a really good job. We put some good swings on the ball.”
 
Then Mitchell got to work on the mound, maneuvering around a double that landed on the left field line and an error, finding himself in a first-and-third situation with one out.
 
The Alabama commit, who mostly worked 84-86 with the fastball, got a visit from Smith on the mound at that point. Smith claimed he didn’t have any magic words for his ace and the rest of the infield, just a reminder that they’re all good baseball players and they that they were one pitch away from getting back into the dugout.
 
The pep talk worked. One pitch later and they were in the dugout after Mitchell did get that ground ball double play.
 
“I was telling them, ‘Hey, we’re better than this. Flush it and let’s get a ground ball double play right here,’” Smith said. “It’s nice when that happens, even if it takes a little butt chewing. But it’s just because I know we’re better than that.”
 
Mitchell cruised after that, throwing five-plus innings total and striking out seven, allowing just three hits.
 
He got the ball to start the sixth, hit the first batter he saw, and his day was over. Two more HBPs and an error followed, and the Patriots’ 7-1 lead was 7-3.
 
Smith then turned to Jacob Wilhide to clean up the damage, and after hitting the first batter he faced to load the bases with no outs, he struck out the next two and got the third to dribble one back to him for the last out. Crisis averted.
 
“That’s the play of the game,” Smith said. “Our pitching coach, Coach Smothers, told him, ‘Hey, they’re going to score two. Let’s get out of it 7-5.’ He goes strikeout, strikeout, ground out and they don’t score, and that’s really the play of the game. They get a hit there, make it 7-5 with no outs, they’re two hits away from tying that sucker.”
 
Overall, it was a great start to the tournament for the Patriots, who have already seen their fair share of battles in the early season.
 
The High School Showdown is certainly a good barometer of where a program is at early in the season, and Bob Jones passed its first test.
 
“We’ve been playing really good ball, we’ve just been a play or two away,” Smith said. “Our record is 4-4, but we’ve had three tough losses by about one run, two in extra innings. Somebody just had to take us over the hump…Sam Mitchell came out early and did a great job commanding the zone. He pitched the best he’s pitched all year.”
 
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