PURVIS – After losing three of its last four games to end the regular season, Purvis’ 12-3 win over Lawrence County was a needed start in the first round of the 4A playoffs.
The Tornados put on an impressive offensive display as they racked up 14 hits, drew six walks and struck out just four times.
“To be honest, in three of our last four games,” Purvis coach Tony Farlow said. “We haven’t played really well hopefully this is something that we build off of.
“This is one of the top three games that we had all year. We hit the ball well tonight, but we have to go over there and do it again. We will see their No. 1 (pitcher) so it’ll be harder to do off of him.”
Purvis took out the Cougars’ starting pitcher Nathan Bullock midway through the second inning. In the first inning, the Tornados got on the board with an RBI single from Damon Putnam, but left the bases loaded. However, Purvis delivered the big blow in the second inning by scoring six runs.
Purvis (12-12) loaded the bases to start the inning, after Bullock hit Jojo Parker to score a run, Putnam delivered a two-run RBI single. Jacob Parker then hit an RBI single with Jacob Parker drawing a walk to score another run. Brannon Smith drove in the final run of the inning off an RBI on a fielder’s choice to give the Tornados a 7-0 lead.
“We had some timely hits,” Farlow said. “We put the ball in play with runners at second and third. We put pressure on them. Everything went our way tonight.”
Lawrence County (14-11) got on the board in the third inning by scoring a run on a double steal. However, Purvis responded with another RBI single by Putnam, who reached in all five of his at-bats and finished 3-for-3 with four RBI while drawing two walks.
The Cougars added two more runs off a two-out, two-run RBI double in the fourth inning, but again Purvis answered with two more RBI singles in the bottom of the frame to make the score 10-3.
Purvis capped off its scoring in the fifth inning with Riley Garner hitting an RBI double and then the final run of the game scoring from an error.
On the mound for the Tornados was Damon Piercy, who had almost equal success as his offense. In six innings, Piercy allowed two earned runs off three hits while striking out six batters and walking two.
“He was good to go for that last inning,” Farlow said. “We just took him out because we had the lead. He threw strikes. He is left-handed and they had trouble squaring him up. He throws strikes. It was a good outing for him.”
While it was needed win for Purvis, according to Farlow, his team will to quickly forget their dominant win.
“We have not historically all year played two games in a row,” Farlow said. “We are trying to get over that hump of having a really good game and then the next day of not showing up.”
Purvis will travel to play Lawrence County on Friday for Game 2 of the series.
