The 2024 high school baseball season brought a number of performances worthy of Prep Baseball Kentucky Player of The Year consideration, an award reserved for the top senior in the state each year. In fact, there were a number of different directions we could have gone with this year’s honor, but our staff kept coming back to one player we felt carried his team far beyond reasonable expectations.

In 2023, Hopkinsville won a grand total of 9 baseball games. They were bounced from the postseason in the first round of the 8th District tournament.

Fast forward to 2024, where the Tigers won 23 games, a 2nd Region championship, and advanced to the State Elite 8 before losing a 2-1 contest to State semifinalist Owensboro Catholic. To say JJ Thompson played an integral part in that turnaround would be a gross understatement.

On a squad that hit .246 as a team, Thompson hit .355 with 12 doubles, 2 triples, and 5 home runs while largely getting pitched around in the Tigers lineup. And while his offensive presence was certainly felt, it may have been his dominance on the mound that was even more important to Hopkinsville’s deep postseason run.

Thompson fired 79.5 innings, allowing just 34 hits while racking up an absurd 143 strikeouts. He allowed just 10 earned runs all season, posting a 0.87 ERA. In the State Tournament, Thompson pitched the final 2 innings with 6 strikeouts in the Tigers shutout win in the opening round, then nearly willed his team to victory the next day when he took the mound again and held a potent Owensboro Catholic offense to 2 runs on 4 hits in 6.2 innings.

Ultimately, our staff felt that JJ Thompson, who heads to Wright State University in the fall, had the greatest impact on his team of any player in the state. It’s hard to imagine Hopkinsville would have had the success they had without Thompson carrying them there.

Congratulations to the Prep Baseball Kentucky 2024 Player of The Year, JJ Thompson.