Tyler Thompson and Jefferson College advance to JUCO World Series

Jefferson College players celebrate their return trip to the JUCO World Series.

I've seen Tyler Thompson pitch only once. But he struck out 20 batters and allowed just one hit while throwing 147 pitches in that game, so you'll have to excuse me if I rushed to judgement and was impressed.

You can read what I wrote after that game here. It was a 5-0 win over Oak Ridge graduate Brett Thomas and the Jackson Legion team during the District 14 tournament last summer.

Thompson, a graduate of South Pemiscot High School who was pitching for Dunklin County, told me after the game that pitching in the NJCAA JUCO World Series prepared him for what had been billed as a marquee pitching matchup.

"College definitely prepared me for this -- pitching a year at college, getting to go to the World Series in front of 7,000 fans," he said. "This was just a step down from that. You're not quite as nervous after pitching in front of that many people."

Thompson will get another opportunity to pitch in that atmosphere starting this weekend. He and his Jefferson College teammates advanced to the World Series for a second season in a row with an extra-inning win on Monday. The final game of the district tournament had been suspended on Sunday and picked up in the 10th inning on Monday.

Jefferson, which is located in Hillsboro, Mo., is 51-10 this season and ranked No. 4 in the latest NJCAA poll.

Thompson is 11-1 with a 2.13 ERA this season. He's thrown four complete games in his 12 starts. He's also struck out 91 batters in 84 2/3 innings. (If you want to further dissect his or the team's statistics you can do that here.)

Thompson was named to the NJCAA Region XVI all-region team this season and will play at Missouri State next year.

If you want to follow the tournament you can find the bracket and schedule here and it looks like you'll be able to watch live and follow along in other ways here.

The most entertaining way to follow along would probably be to just follow Thompson on Twitter @Tyler15Thompson like I do. If you follow me @semoball (And really, why wouldn't you?) you've probably seen me retweet him a couple times during the course of the playoffs.

I know there are other college success stories from area players. Feel free to post ones you know about in the comments, and I'll continue to post the ones I hear from time to time.