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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

TUSCALOOSA – The Thompson Warriors dominated once again in tournament play on Feb. 21 and 22, but this time, they finished the weekend undefeated.

Thompson went a perfect 6-0 in the Hillcrest Tournament at Hillcrest High School in Tuscaloosa to win the tournament championship.

The Warriors defeated the Lawrence County Red Devils 1-0 in the championship after previously beating the Demopolis Tigers, Brookwood Panthers, Hueytown Golden Gophers and Curry Yellow Jackets en route to the title.

In the process, coach Kevin Todd reached an important career milestone as he secured his 300th victory during the tournament.

Before any of those games though, Thompson started out its run with its first of two matchups against Lawrence County.

The Warriors got on the board in the bottom of the second after Morgan Adolphus came home off a dropped third strike.

The pitcher’s duel continued throughout the game, and after Kadyn Bush struck out the side in the top of the fourth, Adolphus brought Destinee Ealy home off an RBI groundout to seal the 2-0 win.

Kelley took the win with five strikeouts in three shutout innings against three hits and two walks. Bush got the save with five strikeouts in two innings as she allowed just one hit and no runs.

The next game against Demopolis was much more high-scoring as the Warriors won 14-0.

Kelsey Burden hit a lead-off single in the first and went all the way around the bases during the next at-bat, eventually getting from third to home off an Olivia Tindell sacrifice fly.

After Bush singled, a Hannah Hobbs double and a run off an error during Aubree Hooks’ at-bat made the lead 3-0. A walk put runners on the corners for Davis, who doubled to score a run before another came home off a wild pitch, putting Thompson up 5-0.

While the next batter struck out, Burden plated two runs with an RBI single. Tindell then walked to set up another two-run hit, this time off a Bush double. Hobbs singled to bring home bush and end the inning with a 10-0 lead.

From there, a Kelley pinch-hit RBI groundout in the bottom of the second made it 11-0 before RBI singles from Bauer, Hooks and Kato finished off the 14-0 win.

Burden, Bush, Hobbs and Davis each went 2-for-2. Burden and Bush each had two RBI and two runs, Hobbs earned two RBI and Davis secured a run and an RBI. Kato also went 1-for-1 with two walks, two runs and an RBI.

Hooks got the win with two hitless innings and five strikeouts while Autumn Ingle secured three strikeouts in a perfect third inning.

The next day, Hooks and Ingle outdueled the Brookwood Panthers to win a low-scoring game.

After a lead-off walk in the top of the first, Tindell hit a bunt single to score Burden from first and give Thompson a 1-0 lead.

While the second and third innings came and went without a run, back-to-back singles to start the top of the fourth led to an Adolphus RBI single that made the lead 2-0. Two batters later with the bases loaded, a fielder’s choice during Burden’s at bat finished off the 3-0 win.

Hooks racked up five strikeouts in three hitless innings while allowing no runs and one walk. Ingle finished the job with two shutout innings, giving up just two hits and no walks.

Later in the day against Hueytown, the Warriors got in trouble early and gave up three runs in the top of the first off a pair of hits. Bush capitalized off a one-out double from Tindell to cut the deficit to 3-1 in the bottom half of the inning.

From there, Thompson’s pitching staff disposed of the Golden Gophers and didn’t allow any additional runs.

The Warriors got another run home on a passed ball with two on and two out in the bottom of the second. They still trailed 3-2 but got a chance to blow the game wide open in the bottom of the fourth.

Two singles with one out in the bottom of the fourth set up Burden to tie the game at 3-3 off an RBI single. Thompson kept tacking on singles, with the fifth-consecutive single in that sequence driving Bush home to take the 5-3 lead.

The Warriors scored seven more runs over the course of the inning, including an RBI single by Hobbs and a two-run double from Burden to put them up 12-3.

Kelly retired the side in the top of the fifth to take the win with her perfect 1.1 innings of work. Bush secured eight strikeouts across 3.2 innings, but her three runs off four hits and two walks made her ineligible for the decision.

Burden went 2-for-3 with a walk, three RBI and a run. Bauer finished 2-for-2 with a walk and a run. Bush was 2-for-3 with three RBI and Tindell had a 2-for-4 game with two runs.

Thompson went down early in its next game against Curry, giving up a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the first off a wild pitch. However, Hooks immediately responded with a lead-off home run in the top of the second to tie the game.

Two batters later, an error off Kato’s bunt drove Adolphus home and put their team up 2-1. The Warriors went on to score six more runs in the second, including off a bases-loaded walk, a Hobbs RBI single, a three-run double by Hooks and a Kato RBI single.

Thompson’s 8-1 lead lasted until the bottom of the third, when a wild pitch gave Curry another run and cut the deficit to 8-2. The Jackets then homered in the bottom of the fourth to make it an 8-3 game, but that was as close as they would get.

Hooks went 3-for-3 at the plate with four RBI and a run while securing the win in the circle. As a pitcher, she had four strikeouts in three innings against one earned run, two total runs, four hits and a walk.

Adolphus also had a multi-hit game as she went 2-for-3 with a run, and Hobbs went 2-for-3 as well with an RBI and a run.

The win put Thompson in the finals for a rematch with Lawrence County.

After a scoreless first inning, Hooks worked around a lead-off single from the Red Devils to strike out two of the next three batters.

From there, Hooks, Adolphus and Kato all walked to begin the bottom of the third. Davis then got hit by a pitch to plate the lone run of the game.

Hooks didn’t allow a single hit in the third or fourth innings and overcame an infield error and walk in the top of the third to get out of a two-on jam.

Thompson went on to win 1-0 in four innings to seal the championship.

Hooks finished the game with five strikeouts in three scoreless innings, surrendering just one hit and a walk.

The 10-1 Warriors will aim to continue their strong run on the road on Tuesday, Feb. 2 when they face the Helena Huskies at 4:30 p.m. at Helena High School.