Down but never out: Thompson wins six-straight elimination games to claim state championship
Published 9:45 pm Wednesday, May 14, 2025
Thompson rallied through six-straight elimination games to win the Class 7A softball state championship in a performance that exemplified the grit and belief that helped the Warriors finally return to the summit. (For the Reporter/Dawn Harrison)
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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor
OXFORD – After losing their first game of the Class 7A state tournament 6-2 to the Sparkman Senators, the Thompson Warriors found themselves in an uncomfortable place without any margin for error.
However, it wasn’t an unfamiliar place.
The Warriors needed to rally from a first-round loss at regionals to defeat both Hoover and Hewitt-Trussville to even make it to Choccolocco Park and the state tournament in Oxford. That gave them the experience they needed to draw from to accomplish an even greater feat–winning six-straight elimination games in an eight-team double elimination bracket.
For inspiration, they just had to look to the motto that carried the Warriors throughout the 2025 season: “No excuses. Get it done.”
First, they got a 2-0 win over Daphne done. Then, a 5-4 win over Central-Phenix City to make it to day two. From there, an 11-1 run-rule victory over Auburn High and a 5-4 walk-off win in the rematch against Sparkman.
That left them against the area foe Tuscaloosa County Wildcats, and Thompson got wins five and six done with an 8-5 game one win and a 9-0 game two win on Wednesday, May 14, completing an incredible rally for the Class 7A state title that left even coach Kevin Todd in awe.
“It was a gauntlet,” Todd said. “We definitely earned what we got tonight, putting Hoover out, then Hewitt-Trussville, then Daphne who put us out last year and then Central-Phenix. We just had to take it one at a time. Now you can look back and say, ‘Wow, that was really, really tough.’ But just all glory to God. It’s who we put all our trust in this program. And He was with us. He was with us today.”
Thompson carried the momentum from its walk-off win over Sparkman into game one of the championship, getting the first two runners aboard with singles before Kadyn Bush opened up a 1-0 lead with a one-out RBI single.
However, an error got Tuscaloosa County’s first runner aboard and set up a game-tying RBI single. After a walk put two on for the Wildcats, they took the 2-1 lead on another RBI single.
That lead grew to 3-1 after a grounder split the wickets at short, forcing an error and plating a run in the bottom of the second.
Thompson missed an opportunity to score with the bases loaded in the top of the third, and after a pair of walks in the bottom of the fourth, Tuscaloosa County scored off another RBI single to third for the 4-1 lead.
The Warriors finally responded in the top of the fifth. With an Aubrey Bauer walk and Olivia Tindell single to start the inning, Thompson worked out of a two-out hole after Whitney Holtzapfel took a deep ball to left and scored two runs to make it a one-run game.
Just like the fifth, the Warriors started the sixth with a pair of base runners, this time off two singles. Two batters later, Bauer ripped one to left and scored Ansley Haynes for the tying run. That came before a Tindell sacrifice fly gave Thompson the lead again with the score now 5-4.
An error at second in the bottom half of the inning allowed the Wildcats to tie it up at 5-5, and neither team scored in the seventh or eighth innings as the teams took an already-lengthy game deeper into extras.
While the first Warriors batter of the ninth walked, the next two batters got out on back-to-back pitches to eliminate Thompson’s margin for error. However, Morgan Adolphus kept the inning alive with a single, and after another single from Haynes, Aubree Hooks stepped up with the bases loaded and two outs.
Hooks sent a sharp grounder up the left field gap to score two of the three runners and take a 7-5 lead, and Kelsey Burden followed that up with a single of her own to center for the 8-5 lead.
Bush then struck out the final batter of the ninth to book a decisive second game for the championship.
In the decisive game, neither team broke through for the first two innings, but Thompson broke through with one out in the bottom of the third thanks to back-to-back singles from Holtzapfel and Mallory Flournoy. That set up Burden to single up the right-field gap and open up a 1-0 lead.
The Wildcats got the out at third shortly after, but after a passed ball put both runners in scoring position, Tindell sent a ground ball to short. However, the Tuscaloosa County first baseman missed the scoop for the out at first, letting Burden score before Bauer beat out the throw for the 3-0 lead.
That gave Thompson all the momentum as Bush turned a second-straight one-two-three inning before two more singles in the bottom of the fourth for the offense.
Those were just the prelude to the dagger in the bottom of the fifth.
With two on and one out after singles from Burden and Tindell, the Warriors grounded out to second base for the second out, but after Burden attempted a run down to home, the umpire called interference, negating a possible double play and returning her to third.
The call proved crucial as Hooks crushed a double to center, scoring two runs and extending the lead to 5-0.
The hit chased the Tuscaloosa County starter, and after a Hobbs walk, Blakely Davis and Holtzapfel hit RBI singles on back-to-back pitches for the 7-0 lead. Both runners stole bases to help Flournoy cap off the rally with a two-run single, making it 9-0 after five innings.
While the Warriors couldn’t get the 10th run home in the fifth for the run-rule win, Bush retired the final six Wildcats batters to put an emphatic stamp on an unlikely state championship run.
Burden won tournament MVP honors after going 3-for-4 with an RBI and two runs in game two and securing a pair of hits in six plate appearances in game one while earning an RBI and a run, capping off a 12-for-25 tournament at the plate that was paired with consistently strong defensive plays at shortstop.
She said the biggest factor in the comeback was the team’s desire to fight until the very end, especially the seniors playing in their final tournament of their careers.
“The it factor was me and my teammates never gave up,” Burden said. “We were down, we came back, we never gave up. We always believed in each other and just got it done.”
It’s a belief and fighting spirit that Todd says makes this team what it is. Even for all their regular season success with an undefeated area run, a 47-6 final record and the No. 1 ranking in Class 7A, he said the team is actually not as strong some of his other teams that fell short in Oxford the last three years.
The difference? Their unity and grit.
“(The seniors) have been in the state tournament every year that they’ve been this program,” Todd said. “And to go out like this, I tell it to them all the time, stat-wise, this is not one of our better teams that we’ve had in the last four years. They just love each other, they play for each other and they’re just gritty. And I’ll never forget them. They’re special.”
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