By NEAL WAGNER / Managing Editor

ALABASTER – Thompson High School senior baseball player Lance Johnson may be heading to the next level after he graduates in May, but THS head baseball coach Pat Hamrick isn’t ready to let him go just yet.

“Lance is always the guy we want to use first on our bullpen. He’s had some big hits for us,” Hamrick, whose 2014 squad made it to the first 7A state championship, said on Nov. 13. “He has played great in the playoffs.”

And with another season winding up for the Warriors, Johnson will have one more chance to prove he is one of the best to wear the THS red uniform before donning a different shade of red after graduation.

Surrounded by friends, family members, coaches and teammates in the school’s library on Nov. 13, Johnson inked a baseball scholarship with the Troy Trojans, where he plans to play pitcher.

Johnson has served as both pitcher and short stop for the Warriors, and had already built an impressive résumé before his senior season began. So far at THS, he has had 157 at-bats, recording 57 hits, 21 RBIs, 38 runs scored and is sitting at a .363 batting average.

He has pitched 35 innings, including four starts, and has five wins and three losses under his belt while recording 27 strikeouts.

Johnson said Troy was his first Division I offer, and said he thoroughly enjoyed meeting the coaches and current players and playing at the school’s facilities last summer.

“I like (Troy head) coach (Mark) Smartt. He really caught my attention,” Johnson said.

His thoughts on leaving his longtime high school teammates behind after graduation?

“It will be weird when we all go our separate ways,” Johnson said. “I may never see them again, but I might actually get to play against them one day.”

THS Principal Dr. Wesley Hester said Johnson embodies “hard work and development,” and said he was one of the first students he met when he became THS principal last summer.

“Not only is he a great baseball player, he’s a great student, person and leader,” Hester said. “I’m very proud of him.”