By the time Grant Sperandio and Quinn Fitzpatrick return to the diamond for their senior seasons, they'll have already shared some of the biggest stages high school baseball has to offer.

They'll just have to do it wearing different uniforms.

Sperandio, Memorial High School's right-handed phenom and a Texas commit, and Fitzpatrick, Stratford's right-handed ace and an LSU commit, have been playing baseball together since fifth grade. This summer, their friendship took them across the country and onto stages most high school players only dream about – together.

They played for the Texas Rangers at the Upperclass Area Code Games in Long Beach, California. They suited up for the MLB High School All-American Game at the Field of Dreams in Dyersville, Iowa. They rounded out their summer reunited at Citizens Bank Park in Philadelphia for the PG All-American Classic.

It was a summer of airports, hotels, big-league ballparks and elite competition.

But for the guys, one of the best parts was simple: doing it alongside a good friend.

"Grant and I basically have been playing baseball together since we were in fifth grade," Fitzpatrick said. "Just being able to get to such a high level and still being able to play, compete and create new memories as we go along has just been an absolute blessing."

The Field of Dreams provided perhaps the most surreal chapter.

Fitzpatrick and Sperandio got to watch an MLB game there, surrounded by Hall of Famers and the history of the sport. For Fitzpatrick, experiencing it with Sperandio made it even better.

"Getting to see all of the Hall of Famers while being there with one of my best friends just made it that much more a cool moment," he said.

Sperandio’s and Fitzpatrick's summer included another dream of its own: USA Baseball. They were two of 88 players invited to the first phase of tryouts for the 18U national team in Cary, North Carolina. Sperandio then advanced to the final 44. He didn't make the final roster, but he came away with something else.

"It was a blessing to play among all the best guys in my grade," Sperandio said. "I am grateful for the opportunity and see it as a chip on my shoulder for the future."

That competitive edge is part of what makes their friendship so unusual. Because when they come home, Sperandio and Fitzpatrick aren't teammates.

They're rivals.

Memorial and Stratford are separated by only a few miles, and their senior seasons will eventually put the two right-handers on opposite sides of the same rivalry. Yet even then, the friendship doesn't stop.

They text before games. They talk afterward. They compare how they pitched and what they could have done better.

"It's definitely a cool but also a unique experience," Fitzpatrick said. "Not many people get to go compete at the highest level in a summer circuit and come back home and compete at two rival high schools."

Soon, the stakes will change again.

Sperandio will head to Texas. Fitzpatrick will head to LSU. They'll trade their high school rivalry for an SEC rivalry, creating another chapter of camaraderie and competition in a baseball relationship that has already lasted nearly a decade.

For now, though, they're still teenagers getting to live out a pretty remarkable baseball story: two friends chasing the same game, sharing the same dreams and competing against each other whenever the schedule demands it.

The uniforms may change, the competition may get bigger, but the friendship has been there all along.