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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

NORTHPORT – The Thompson Warriors bounced back from a game one defeat in the second game of their series with the Tuscaloosa County Wildcats to earn a 6-5 win on Friday, April 12 at Tuscaloosa County High School.

That left the series tied 1-1 after Thompson erased a three-run first inning lead in game one but gave up two runs in the fifth inning to lose the game 5-4.

With the series now knotted at a game apiece, the teams will play a tiebreaking game three on Saturday, April 20 at noon back at Tuscaloosa County High School.

Wyatt Williams took the mound for game two and started dealing, earning six strikeouts across the first three innings.

The Wildcats matched that defensive effort and kept the game scoreless at the end of the third inning.

However, Drake McBride broke that tie with two outs in the top of the fourth inning when his triple turned into a run after an error on the throw by the Tuscaloosa County center fielder.

That 1-0 lead was quickly erased by the Wildcats when they hit a two-out RBI single in the bottom of the fourth to tie the game. Two batters later, another RBI single gave Tuscaloosa County the 2-1 lead and a pair of walks after that led to another run.

Williams led off the top of the fifth with a double, and after advancing to third off a wild pitch, an Ashton Blair sacrifice fly made the score 3-2 Wildcats.

The comeback continued in the top of the sixth when Tucker Arrington hit a lead-off single of his own. Pinch runner Anderson Harris advanced to third off a pair of errors and then came home off a D’Marion Terrell RBI single, tying the game up at 3-3.

The Warriors were reduced to their final out in the top of the seventh, but a pair of walks kept the inning alive. Peryn Bland then came up clutch with a three-run home run to give Thompson a 6-3 lead.

Tuscaloosa County nearly came back from that after Thompson gave up a pair of walks to start the bottom of the seventh. While the next batter popped out, a two-run single cut the deficit to just one run.

However, Ashton Blair settled in on the mound and struck out the next two batters to end the game and secure the 6-5 win.

Blair took the win with three strikeouts in three innings and worked his way around one earned run, two total runs, two hits and two walks.

The Warriors will start their final area series of the season against Hoover on Tuesday, April 16 for game one at 6 p.m. at Hoover High School. Game two will be at Thompson on Thursday, April 18 at 4:30 p.m.