LEWISTON – With warm-ups completed in the appropriately named Gray Cage, Edwin Thompson directed the bulk of his Bates College baseball team to the next session.

The temperature outside is a far cry from what it was in western Georgia just a few days before, but the players were still eager to get outside. They grabbed their gloves and jogged across Central Ave. and the Bertram Hall parking lot, over the snow banks and through the mud back to terra firma on the AstroTurf of Campus Avenue Field.

As about 20 of his players played catch in the twilight, first-year coach Thompson, a Jay native and former associate head coach at University of Maine at Farmington, evaluated where his team was a quarter of the way into its season, and where it is headed.

“I think the excitement for the program is right where it needs to be,” he said. “This is a school that has all of the pieces of the puzzle to be a contender at the national level, and that’s what our goal is.”

National contention is a long ways away, the first-year Bates coach admitted. Right now, the Bobcats are focused on more immediate goals, like stringing a few wins together after a 3-9 start to the season. But Thompson sees no reason not to set the bar high for a program that is still looking to reach its first New England Small College Athletic Conference tournament.

“You come to a school like this because you want to challenge yourself academically. I tell my guys, ‘We’re going to challenge you in baseball,'” he said.

While he is charged with refining the hitting, fielding and pitching skills of some of the finest young minds in Maine, Thompson’s message is the same as it was while working with Dick Meader in Farmington and coaching boys’ varsity basketball at Jay High School – energy, effort and execution.

Thompson brings a fourth ‘e’ to the program, according to sophomore catcher Gordy Webb.

“I think one of the biggest things this program needed this year was enthusiasm,” Webb said. “Coach Thompson is so enthusiastic at practice, to meet with you, to eat lunch with you, so enthusiastic just to talk with you.”

The Bobcats finished with 14 wins last year, the most since 1992, but coupled with 21 losses, frustration was mounting under coach Craig Vandersea.

“Last year, we got comments, we got negative comments, but coach never told us what we needed to work on,” said Webb, a 2007 Mr. Baseball finalist at Bangor. “That’s one thing that coach Thompson does. He tells us what we need to work on every time. He’s always helping us getting better.”

Thompson has a lot of help doing that. His staff consists of hitting coach Dave Jordan, former varsity coach at Poland Regional High School, pitching coach Travis Dube, a former Livermore Falls star plucked from the coaching staff at Bowdoin, and veteran bench coach Bob Flynn, who preceded Vandersea as head coach during the 1990s.

The quartet has a young roster, including 19 freshmen and sophomores with which to work in Bates’ 137th season. Senior Ben Shwartz leads the pitching staff, with sophomores Paul Chiamps and Ryan Heide both off to strong starts in the rotation. A number of other sophomores, including outfielders Chris Burke and Pat Murphy (of Cape Elizabeth) and infielders Noah Lynd and Noah Burke (Camden Hills) have been the major catalysts for the new-look offense.

One of the most dramatic shifts for the Bobcats under Thompson has been in baserunning. They stole stole 21 bases in their first eight games. Last year, they swiped 14 for the whole season.

“I told them I want to lead the conference in stolen bases,” Thompson said. “It creates havoc on the basepaths and make other teams defend us, instead of sitting back and waiting for the three-run homer. We don’t have those types of guys.”

Thompson, who played Division I baseball at Howard University and the University of Maryland and professionally in an independent league, has told his players the days of Bates waiting for the big inning are gone.

“From Day 1, he’s always said, ‘Win every inning. Win every inning 1-0, if that’s what it comes down to,” junior shortstop Tom Beaton said. “He’s given a couple of guys the green light stealing, and just knowing that he has that confidence in the players making not only good decisions but also knowing situations helps in making a difference in the game.”

“Our first baseman (Lynd), who is 230-240 pounds, had like, five stolen bases down in west Georgia, so it definitely is changing,” Webb said.

The Bobcats think the results on the scoreboard will change soon, too, although that will be a tough task in a conference that includes defending Division III champion Trinity.

“Coach Thompson’s approach mentally is play the game like you’re better than everybody else. Don’t be intimidated. Feel like you can beat everybody that you’re playing,” Shwartz said. “I think that’s something that we’re starting to do. We’re starting to believe in ourselves.”

Bates is scheduled to open its home slate Saturday against Colby, field conditions permitting.