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By TYLER RALEY | Special to the Reporter

CALERA – The Thompson Warriors started the game off strong and never looked back on Thursday, Feb. 29, scoring seven runs in the first inning on the way to a 9-1 win on the road at Calera.

The Warriors wasted no time getting hot at the plate, posing their will early on.

On the second pitch of the game, Kelsey Burden led the game off with a single into left field and would advance to second on an error in the same play.

Keara Hall would come right behind her with a single of her own to left field, where Eagle left fielder Armiya Shamburger recorded her second error of the game. That error would allow Burden to come in and score, giving Thompson an early 1-0 lead.

Dailynn Motes followed that up with a double to center field, scoring Hall on the hit. Kadyn Bush kept the action going with another single into left field, scoring Motes and extending the the Warriors lead to 3-0. Calera still had not managed to record an out.

After that sequence, though, the Eagles forced two fly balls that turned into outs. Unfortunately for Calera, the last out was the hardest to get.

Olivia Tindell earned a free pass to first base by virtue of being hit. Hannah Hobbs decided that she would join the party at that moment, sending a long ball over the center field wall for a three-run homer. Thompson was on fire, making the lead 6-0 in the opening frame.

More danger loomed on the horizon, as Neely Davis drew a walk followed by a Burden single, beginning the second time through the lineup. Hall would then hit her second single of the game as well, scoring Davis and extending the lead to seven.

Shamburger threw out Burden trying to take third for the final out, but the damage had been done.

While the next few innings were quiet, what the Thompson defense and pitchers were doing was incredible.

As a whole, Bush and Kayla Haney combined to pitch for nine strikeouts in the win. Any contact they did give up was always taken care of quickly by the defense behind them. The one run given up came on a home run in the bottom of the fourth off the bat of Shamburger.

Following a quiet fifth, the Warriors went back to work with the bats in the sixth. Burden got her third single of the game, followed by a double from Hall that scored her. After a second out was recorded Bush sent a laser into center field, recording a single and an RBI that put the Thompson lead at 9-1.

That is where the scoring stopped, and while the Warriors could have added more in the seventh with two runners on base, nothing resulted from it.

With the win, Thompson improves its record to a strong 13-1. It will look to improve on that when it takes on Calera again on March 4 at 4:30 p.m. The game will be held at Thompson High School.