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By ANDREW SIMONSON | Sports Editor

HOOVER – The Thompson Warriors continued gearing up for the playoffs with three wins in four games at the Hoover Classic from April 19-20 at the Hoover Met Complex.

Thompson rebounded from a 7-0 loss in the opening game against Austin to win its final three games of the tournament, a 7-1 victory against the Oakland Patriots, a 6-2 win over the Faith Academy Rams and a 10-0 victory over the Mortimer Jordan Blue Devils.

In the game against Oakland, the Warriors got a double play to end the top of the first inning and carried that momentum into the bottom half of the inning.

Morgan Adolphus followed a Kelsey Burden lead-off single with a bunt single, and an error during the play allowed Burden to come home and Adolphus to advance to second.

Adolphus quickly advanced to third off a passed ball, and on the next pitch, a sacrifice fly by Olivia Tindell doubled the lead to 2-0.

The next inning, a walk, a hit by pitch and a fielder’s choice loaded up the bases for Burden with one out, and she singled to make the lead three runs.

While a fielder’s choice on the next at-bat led to Oakland getting a runner out at home, Tindell took advantage of having the bases loaded to hit an RBI single and take the lead to 4-0 to end the inning.

The offensive rally continued in the bottom of the third with singles by Kadyn Bush and Blakely Davis, and a sacrifice bunt by Hannah Hobbs moved both into scoring position.

From there, the Warriors capitalized with three runs in three plays, including a Mallory Flournoy RBI single, a run off an Autumn Ingle fielder’s choice that didn’t produce an out and another run scored by Flournoy during Jillian Kato’s at-bat to increase the lead to 7-0.

The Patriots got a run back off a sacrifice fly in the top of the sixth, but it wasn’t enough to close the gap as Thompson secured the 7-1 win in six innings.

Tindell went 2-for-2 with two RBI and Burden joined her with a multi-hit game with a 2-for-3 performance with a run and an RBI.

Ingle secured the win with five strikeouts in five shutout innings, allowing just four hits and a walk in the process. Kayla Haney took the save by working around one run and two hits in the sixth inning.

In the second game, the Warriors got into a first-inning hole to Faith Academy thanks to an RBI single and an RBI ground out that made the lead 2-0.

Thompson couldn’t respond in the first inning but made its move for the lead in the bottom of the second.

After the first batter of the game got out, an error followed by singles from Adolphus and Hobbs loaded up the bases for Savanna Burnett. She hit into a fielder’s choice that led to chaos off an error, and two runs came home to tie up the game.

A hit batsman loaded up the bases and led to an RBI ground out by Tindell, and the Warriors took a 3-2 lead.

Thompson made that lead 4-2 off an Aubree Hooks sacrifice bunt in the bottom of the third inning.

A hit by pitch and a walk to start the bottom of the fourth put a pair of runners on for the Warriors, but the next two batters got out to put Thompson in a hole. However, Laney Williams came up with an RBI triple to plate both runners.

That proved to be the final offense of the game as the Warriors walked away with the 6-2 victory.

Williams finished 2-for-3 with two RBI and Adolphus went 2-for-3 with a run.

Bush went the distance with seven full innings to earn the win, taking eight strikeouts in the process. She didn’t allow an earned run and faced two unearned runs, two hits and four walks.

In the final game of the tournament, Thompson raced ahead to an early lead against Mortimer Jordan and didn’t look back.

Burden hit a lead-off single to start the top of the first for Thompson, and after she stole a base, she came home off an error following a bunt single to kick off the scoring.

Another error loaded up the bases for Williams, and Mortimer Jordan had more trouble with the bunt after Williams hit a bunt single that led to another run off an error.

Bush then cleared the bases with an RBI double to take the lead to 4-0 before a single out was recorded.

While the Blue Devils recovered from there to get out of the inning, Thompson added on to its lead in the top of the second.

A Tindell RBI single followed up another lead-off single from Burden to make the lead five runs, and two batters later, a sacrifice fly by Williams took the lead to 6-0.

That lead held until the fourth inning when the Warriors got another chance to capitalize with the bases loaded and one out thanks to an error and two walks.

Another error after Keara Hall hit a fly ball to center scored two runs, and a miscue after a Flournoy single led to the final two runs of the game as Thompson went up 10-0 and held onto the lead for the four-inning win.

Burden led the offense by going 3-for-3 with two runs, and Williams and Bush each had two RBI on 1-for-1 days. Tindell went 2-for-3 with two runs and an RBI.

Hooks secured the win with 2.2 shutout innings where she took four strikeouts against just two hits and a walk. Ingle secured five strikeouts in just 1.1 shutout innings of relief while allowing two hits and a walk.

Thompson will play its final game before the start of the area tournament on Tuesday, April 23 against Class 6A No. 1 Helena at home at 5 p.m.