Thompson pulls away late for second win of the week over Calera

Published 4:37 pm Friday, March 7, 2025

By Andrew Simonson

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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

ALABASTER – History didn’t quite repeat itself when the Thompson Warriors and Calera Eagles squared off just days after the Warriors’ 11-1 win over the Eagles, but Thompson still managed to secure the victory once again.

Thompson defeated Calera 6-3 on Thursday, March 6 at Thompson High School to bounce back from an 8-4 loss to Chilton County on Wednesday, March 5.

The Eagles opened up the scoring as they emerged from a two-out hole in the top of the first to get an RBI double from the bat of Dalton Ash to go up 1-0.

However, the Warriors flipped that deficit on its head in the bottom half of the inning. After a one-out single, Ma’Kale Holden doubled to tie the game before Wyatt Williams gave them the lead with an RBI triple. Another run came home two batters later after a pop fly went awry, giving Thompson a 3-1 lead.

While the next two innings went without a run from either team, a Kade Brantley single followed by a walk put Thompson in business. Cooper Fuller then got a run to come home off a sacrifice fly to increase the lead to 4-1.

The Eagles had a chance to respond in the top of the fourth after they got a pair of runners off a Camden Russell single followed by an error during AJ Johnson’s at-bat. While they dropped to a two-out hole afterwards, Kegan Johnson cut the deficit to just one with a two-run single.

The next batter drew a walk to put the potential go-ahead run on base, but the Warriors got out of the threat by forcing a fly out.

Thompson didn’t allow another run the rest of the way and got more run support down the stretch. Josh Tuttle took the lead to 5-1 off a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the fifth, and a wild pitch near the end of the sixth inning finished off the scoring.

A one-two-three inning in the seventh was the cherry on top for the Warriors as they got back to winning ways.

Williams led Thompson at the plate with a 3-for-4 day with two runs and an RBI. Austin Barnett finished 2-for-4 with two runs.

Brooks Byars got the win on the mound with five strikeouts during his three innings of one-hit baseball. He allowed just two hits and two walks.

As for the Eagles, Kegan Johnson and Ash had multi-hit days as Johnson was 2-for-3 with a walk, two RBI and a run while Ash finished 2-for-4 with an RBI.

Thompson improved to 11-5 and will face off against Bob Jones on Saturday, March 8 at 11 a.m. in a playoff rematch before facing Oxford later in the day at 4 p.m. Both games will be at Thompson High School.

Calera dropped to 6-7 with the loss and will be at Briarwood Christian School on Saturday to face Prattville at 2 p.m. before facing Briarwood at 4:30 p.m.

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