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The Thompson Warriors picked up a thrilling 2-1 victory against Helena on Thursday, March 12. (For the Reporter/Jeremy Raines)

By JEREMY RAINES | Special to the Reporter

ALABASTER – The Helena Huskies and Thompson Warriors played a non-area matchup on Thursday night, March 12, at Thompson’s older baseball field.

THS pitcher Harrison Poplin threw the first pitch of the game right around sunset, pitching a scoreless first for the Warriors’ defense. Helena pitcher Will Griffith followed suit pitching a scoreless first inning for the Huskies.

After just one inning, Helena replaced Griffith with Seth Gregory, who, along with the opposing Poplin, would bring the game through 4 innings with the scoreboard still yet to see a runner cross home plate.

The Huskies threatened in the fourth inning through the batting efforts of Brody Moss and Landon Leake, but Thompson’s defense prevented any runs from scoring.

In the Warriors’ fourth-inning at-bat, misfortune struck when leader Carson Hobbs was ejected from the game for a disagreement with the home plate official.

Finally, in the fifth inning, the Huskies took advantage of the swing in momentum by posting the game’s first run. After a missed pop fly by the Warriors, Ryan Storey found himself on first before being moved to third on a short hit to left field by Riley Marks.

With runners on the corners and one out, Luke Stamba hit a line drive ground ball up the center to drive in Storey for a 1-0 lead.

The Huskies held that lead for just a brief moment, however, as Thompson answered back to quickly snatch the advantage.

Connor Gregory kick-started the productive inning for the Warriors with a line drive to right center. After Gregory was replaced on the mound with by Leake, the Warriors took advantage of the pitching change when Logan Braunschweig tied the game with a triple off of the right field wall that scored Gregory from first.

During the next at bat, Saxon Klinner drove in another run on a line drive that brought Braunschweig from third.

That two-run inning was all that was needed for the Huskies thanks to strong pitching and defense throughout, which helped close out the 2-1 victory.

Poplin was a big reason for that success after tossing a complete game and allowing just one run with eight strikeouts.

Leaders for the Warriors included Braunschweig, who picked up two hits and drove in one of the runs for THS, while Klinner drove in the second run.

Helena was led by McQuire Turner, who picked up two hits on the night, and Luke Stamba who drove in the Huskies’ only run.

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