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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

The Thompson Warriors bounced back from a Red Bracket Quarterfinal loss to Grissom to win all three of their consolation play games at the Perfect Game High School Showdown.

Thompson defeated the Calera Eagles 11-1 and Northwest Rankin Cougars 4-0 on Friday, Feb. 28 at Jim “Peanut” Davenport Field in Alabaster before beating the Mobile Christian Leopards in a wild 25-13 game on Saturday, March 1 at Calera’s Eagle Sports Complex.

After losing 2-1 against Grissom on Thursday, Feb. 27, Thompson took an early lead on Calera the next day thanks to a bases-loaded walk in the top of the second.

Later in the top of the third, a pair of walks and a hit batsman loaded up the bases for the Warriors with one out, and they proceeded to burst the game open. While the next batter struck out, Thompson’s next seven batters reached base.

Collier Smith opened up the scoring with a two-run double before Hayden Craycraft’s RBI single took the lead to 5-0. The next two batters reached when they were hit by pitches, and a Ma’Kale Holden RBI single, Wyatt Williams three-run double and a run off an error let the Warriors end the inning with a 10-0 lead.

Thompson scored again off an error in the top of the fourth. Calera drew a bases-loaded walk in the bottom of the inning, but that was the lone run it scored as the Warriors won by the run rule at the end of the fifth inning.

Ashton Blair got the win as he earned six strikeouts in four innings against one unearned run, two hits and three walks.

In the second game of the day, the Warriors blanked Mississippi’s Northwest Rankin behind a big starting performance from Williams, who had six shutout innings with seven strikeouts against three hits and a walk. Caden Wooten finished the game with a perfect seventh inning.

After a walk and an error to start its half of the first inning, Holden hit an RBI single to open up a 1-0 lead. Williams plated another run three pitches later off an RBI ground out, increasing the lead to 2-0.

That lead held the rest of the way even as the Warriors went three innings without scoring another run.

However, Thompson broke the scoring drought in the bottom of the fifth. Anderson Harris got hit by the first pitch of the inning before getting to third off a steal and an error on the pick-off and then getting home off a passed ball.

The Warriors added one more run in the bottom of the sixth after putting Mills on third off a fielder’s choice, single and error. Gabriel Romero helped Mills complete his trip around the bases with an RBI single to cap off the 4-0 win.

Thompson then went into the third and final day of the tournament and started its game against Mobile Christian with one of its best offensive performances as 11 of the first 12 batters reached base safely.

A Blair RBI single, Williams two-run triple, Romero RBI single and Harris RBI double put the Warriors up 5-0 before the first out of the game, a sacrifice fly that took the lead to 6-0.

Two batters later with runners on the corners, a fielder’s choice resumed the scoring and led to another RBI single for Blair, this time producing two runs. Holden then doubled on the first pitch he saw to set up Williams for a two-run single on his first pitch, making the lead 11-0 at the end of the inning.

However, that dominance didn’t translate over to the defense in the bottom of the first. A steal of home led to an RBI double, RBI ground out and solo home run over the next three at-bats to allow the Leopards to slash the deficit to 11-4.

Mobile Christian then scored three runs off a pair of first-pitch RBI singles in the bottom of the second to make it an 11-7 ball game.

Thompson got back in business in the third inning, plating a run off a sacrifice fly before stringing together base runners with two outs. Harris hit an RBI single before he was joined on the base paths by Brody Sabo off a single and Craycraft off a hit by pitch.

From there, Harris scored off a wild pitch, and the Warriors scored two more runs off bases-loaded walks. Williams then took the first pitch he saw to left field for a two-run single, making the lead 18-7 in the process.

Mobile Christian then scored four runs in the bottom of the third off a single, passed ball and a bases-loaded walk, which cut the lead down to 18-11 at the end of the third.

The Leopards then got three free base runners to start the bottom of the fourth and brought them both home on sacrifice flies, drawing within five in the process with the score at 18-13.

The Warriors then got another chance to add on to their lead thanks to three walks on the first three batters of the fifth. Williams and Romero followed that up with a pair of two-run doubles to take the lead to 22-13.

Once the next batter was hit by a pitch, Thompson got a run off a wild pitch before capping off the 25-13 run-rule win with runs off a sacrifice fly and a ground-out.

Williams finished the game 5-for-5 with eight RBI and three runs. Sabo went 2-for-3 with two RBI and a run, Harris was 2-for-3 with a walk, two RBI and three runs, Romero finished 2-for-4 with four RBI and Blair went 2-for-4 with two walks, three RBI and four runs.

The Warriors will now have a big stretch of three games in three days, first against Hoover on Tuesday, March 4 followed by a Wednesday, March 5 game against Chilton County and finally, a rematch with Calera on Thursday, March 6. All games will be at home with 6:30 p.m. first pitches.