Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The Thompson Warriors’ bats were singing in tune with the sounds of Music City as they secured five wins in six games across three days at Nashville’s Riverdale High School and Trevecca Nazarene University.

Thompson defeated Florida’s Gulliver Prep Raiders 6-0 on Monday, March 24 and California’s South Hills Huskies 7-2 on Tuesday, March 25 before three wins over Illinois teams.

The Warriors beat the Whitney Young Dolphins 13-5 on Tuesday, March 25 before taking down the Marian Catholic Spartans 15-5 in six innings and the St. Rita Mustangs 2-1 on Wednesday, March 26.

The wins take Thompson to 20-11 as coach Frankie Perez’s team is now finished with its non-area slate.

The first game against Gulliver Prep saw neither team score in the first five innings, but a double and a pair of errors loaded up the bases for the Warriors in the top of the sixth.

RBI singles from Wyatt Williams, Ma’Kale Holden and Anderson Harris came on successive at-bats, and a wild pitch in between helped Thompson take a 4-0 lead.

From there, a one-out error in the top of the seventh scored another run before Austin Barnett finished the job with an RBI single for the 6-0 win.

Williams was 4-for-5 with a run and an RBI while Barnett finished 3-for-5 with a run and an RBI. Holden went 2-for-5 with a run and an RBI to secure a multi-hit day as well.

Ian Hillary took the win with seven strikeouts in seven shutout innings against five hits and three walks.

Later that day, Thompson dueled in out with Illinois’ Oak Park-River Forest Huskies ahead of its lone loss of the tournament.

After the Warriors gave up a run off a passed ball in the top of the third, they tied the game right back up with a Barnett RBI ground out in the bottom of the inning.

The 1-1 deadlock continued into the top of the seventh until the Huskies scored off a one-out RBI single followed by a run off a fielder’s choice play.

Two walks and a single loaded up the bases for Thompson in the bottom of the inning, but despite getting a run back off a two-out wild pitch, Oak Park-River Forest got the final two strikes to seal the one-run win at the death.

Williams racked up 12 strikeouts in six innings, earning a no decision with one unearned run, two hits and two walks.

The next day against South Hills, the Warriors started the game with four runs in the bottom of the first. The first run crossed on a bases-loaded hit by pitch ahead of RBI singles from Harris and Gabe Romero, and then Thompson made it a 4-0 lead by drawing a bases-loaded walk.

However, free base runners in the top of the third led to a pair of runs off an error for the Huskies and cut the deficit to 4-2.

Those were the last South Hills runs of the game as the Warriors closed the deal in the fifth. Two errors and a walk loaded up the bases ahead of a Romero two-run single. Logan Watson was then hit by a pitch with the bases loaded to seal the 7-2 win.

Romero was 2-for-3 with three RBI while Williams finished 2-for-4 with two runs.

Holden earned the complete-game win, securing six strikeouts against two unearned runs, one hit and one walk.

Later that day, Thompson had a high-scoring matchup with Whitney Young that began with the Warriors falling in a 3-0 hole in the top of the second.

However, a Holden double followed by a walk set up Thompson to score two runs off a sacrifice fly and a wild pitch in the bottom of the inning.

After a scoreless third, the Dolphins took a 5-2 lead in the top of the fourth with a two-out rally, securing an RBI single and a run off a passed ball.

The Warriors quickly loaded up the bases in the bottom of the fourth and cut it to a one-run game off an error. RBI singles from Barnett, Williams, Davis Stallworth, an RBI double from Holden and a passed ball helped Thompson take and extend the lead to 10-5.

From there, the Warriors then capitalized off a hit by pitch and a walk with two outs in the bottom of the fifth with a Williams RBI double and a Holden RBI single to secure the 13-5 win.

Williams and Holden each finished 2-for-4 with Williams earning four RBI and two runs while Holden earned a run and an RBI. Stallworth was a perfect 3-for-3 with an RBI and a run.

The next day, Thompson’s offense overcame an early hole to breeze past Marion Catholic.

After a walk and a hit by pitch with two outs in the top of the first, Cooper Mills hit a sharp grounder that led to an error and a 1-0 lead.

However, the Spartans rallied in the bottom half of the inning, earning a pair of RBI singles while also getting a run off a fielder’s choice.

The Warriors brushed off the runs and used a pair of walks that started the second inning to tie the game off a two-run single from Cooper Craycraft.

The other half of the Craycrafts, Hayden, helped Thompson retake the 4-3 lead in the top of the fourth off a two-out RBI single.

Marian Catholic quickly struck with a triple in the bottom of the third, and while the next two batters got out, the runner eventually came home off a game-tying RBI single.

The Warriors ended the back-and-forth in the fourth with a six-run inning. After taking the lead off a Williams RBI double, Mills made it a 6-4 game with an RBI single two batters later.

An error loaded up the bases and allowed Stallworth to bring a run home off a sacrifice fly. Thompson then loaded up the bags again with a walk ahead of a run-scoring error.

The Warriors finished off the rally with a run off a Barnett grounder to take a 10-4 lead into the fifth inning.

After a scoreless fifth, Thompson got another chance to strike in the sixth thanks to an error, hit batsman and wild pitch that put two in scoring position with no outs.

While the next batter got out, Williams scored two runs on a first-pitch double ahead of an RBI single for Holden.

That was the first of three-straight singles for the Warriors, the latter of which was a Watson RBI single to extend the lead to 14-4.

Two batters later, Fausnight came in and hit a pinch-hit RBI single to cap off Thompson’s scoring.

A wild pitch gave Marion a run back in the bottom half of the inning, but it couldn’t get within single digits as the Warriors won 15-5.

Williams went 2-for-4 with three RBI and two runs while Holden was 2-for-3 with two walks, three runs and an RBI and Mills finished 2-for-4 with two runs and an RBI.

Tuttle came in to secure the win with five strikeouts across 4.1 innings, facing one earned run, two total runs, three hits and a walk.

Thompson then finished off the tournament with a 2-1 win over St. Rita.

After a scoreless first inning, the Warriors juiced the bags in the second with two walks and a Watson single in the first three at-bats.

Two batters later, a Hayden Craycraft bunt was well-placed enough for the sacrifice, bringing Holden home for the 1-0 lead.

However, a lead-off single for the Mustangs turned into a two-out RBI single to tie the game at 1-1 in the top of the second.

The game remained in the balance until disaster struck for St. Rita in the bottom of the fifth. After an error let the lead-off runner reach, Brody Sabo sacrificed himself to advance Hayden Craycraft to second.

Two wild pitches then brought him home for the go-ahead run, and the Warriors kept the Mustangs scoreless the rest of the way.

Caden Wooten got the win with six innings of one-run baseball, earning three strikeouts against three hits and a walk. Ashton Blair got the save in the seventh, allowing just one walk and striking out two of the four batters he faced.

Thompson will kick off area play on Tuesday, April 1 at 5:30 p.m. against the Prattville Lions at Thompson High School. Games two and three will be Thursday, April 3 at 4:30 and 7 p.m. at Prattville High School.