The Thompson Warriors baseball team knew how dangerous the Clay-Chalkville Cougars were offensively going in to Friday&8217;s Class 6A state semifinal series at home.

But soon after the first game got under way, the Warriors quickly realized there was little they could do to keep the Cougars off the bases.

Thompson was eliminated from the playoffs, dropping the first two games of a best-of-three series to Clay-Chalkville 9-3 and 10-0.

Senior pitcher Austin Lucas (9-3) started the first game for the Warriors (25-10), going six-and-one-third innings for THS while giving up nine runs on five walks and 10 hits. He struck out eight batters in the final start of his high school career.

The Cougars erupted for six runs in the top of the fourth inning on seven hits to increase their lead to seven and break the game wide open.

Thompson responded with one run in the bottom of the inning but was unable to string together hits until the final at-bat. The Warriors plated two runs in the seventh, but their late-game rally fell short.

Thompson pitcher Daniel Cox (8-1) dropped his first game of the season in the second match