PURVIS – Purvis found itself on the losing end of a pitching duel in Thursday’s night 4-0 loss to West Jones.
Purvis’ Jesse Johnson and West Jones’ Sam Hill went head-to-head in the first four innings of the game as the two combined for 18 strikeouts.
Johnson retired West Jones (4-2) for the Mustangs first three innings and after the first four innings totaled seven of his strikeouts. Hill was equally effective and retired Purvis in order three of the first four innings of the game and notably struck outside the side in the third inning.
However, West Jones’ offense managed to find life with two outs in the fifth inning. After earning two quick outs, Johnson gave up four hits and three walks that allowed West Jones to take its four-run lead. The Mustangs scored all their runs from three back-to-back RBI hits.
“The first five innings were two good pitchers on the mound battling and nobody could hit,” Purvis coach Tony Farlow. “Obviously, they got Jesse off the mound. He got a little tired. That’s his first extended outing this year. He had good stuff. They had a couple of timely hit. They had people on base throughout the latter part of the game, and we dodged a bullet a couple of times. We just never got going at all offensively and like I said, their No. 1 pitcher had a lot to do with that.”
Drew Brewer finished the inning and game for Johnson in relief without allowing any more runs. At the end of the night, Johnson finished allowed four runs off six hits, struck out eight batters and walked four in 99 pitches.
“I told our pitching coach that I thought there was a couple of calls that I thought he didn’t get that were close, but that’s baseball,” Farlow said. “We are a call away from maybe striking the guy out, and they get a bat on a couple of balls that find a hole. Then he got tired but battled. He needed that tonight. He needed to go out and work against a good team so maybe it’ll make us hungry down the road.”
Hill stayed between 87-90 mph the whole night and in five complete innings totaled 11 strikeouts and walked two batters without giving up a hit.
“We had heard that (Hill) was really good,” Farlow said. “I think he is a Pearl River signee. We are not used to seeing stuff like that. We are seeing some good arms right now, and I hope that helps us down the road for our division because everybody in our division has at least one good arm. Hopefully, this will get us ready for division games.”
Brewer gave up just two hits and a walk in his relief appearance while striking out two batters.
While the effective pitching performances mostly highlighted the night, the Tornados’ lack of offense was a significant issue in their loss.
“We had 10 or 11 hits the first two games, but we weren’t facing the pitching that we have been facing since then. We haven’t done a whole lot offensively this year,” Farlow said. “I think our team batting average was like .250 coming into tonight. I’m sure it went down after tonight. We seem to just be getting two or three hits, but we have won some games doing that. The ball kind of bounced our way in a few of these games that we kind of stole at the end. But we just have to get better offensively and at least put the ball in play against these good pitchers and make their defense field and throw you out.”
In total, Purvis had three hits, stranded 10 runners on base, six of reached base with two outs, and struck out 13 times.
“We have to look at this as making us better,” Farlow said. “It seemed like every time we got somebody on base; we had two outs. If we can ever get anybody on base with nobody out, then you might score a couple of runs. Then maybe it’s a 4-2 and then one hit away from a tied game.”
PURVIS – Purvis’ Jesse Johnson and West Jones’ Sam Hill went head-to-head in the first four innings of the game as the two combined for 18 strikeouts.
However, the Tornados found themselves on the losing end of a pitching duel in Thursday’s night 4-0 loss to West Jones.
Johnson retired West Jones (4-2) in order for the first three innings and after the first four innings he had seven of his strikeouts. Hill was equally effective and retired Purvis in order three of the first four innings of the game and notably struckout the side in the third inning.
However, West Jones’ offense managed to find life with two outs in the fifth inning. After earning two quick outs, Johnson gave up four hits and three walks that allowed West Jones to take its four-run lead. The Mustangs scored all their runs from three back-to-back RBI hits.
“The first five innings were two good pitchers on the mound battling and nobody could hit,” Purvis coach Tony Farlow. “Obviously, they got Jesse off the mound. He got a little tired. That’s his first extended outing this year. He had good stuff. They had a couple of timely hit. They had people on base throughout the latter part of the game, and we dodged a bullet a couple of times. We just never got going at all offensively and like I said, their No. 1 pitcher had a lot to do with that.”
Drew Brewer finished the inning and game for Johnson in relief without allowing any more runs. At the end of the night, Johnson finished allowed four runs off six hits, struck out eight batters and walked four in 99 pitches.
“I told our pitching coach that I thought there was a couple of calls that I thought he didn’t get that were close, but that’s baseball,” Farlow said. “We are a call away from maybe striking the guy out, and they get a bat on a couple of balls that find a hole. Then he got tired but battled. He needed that tonight. He needed to go out and work against a good team so maybe it’ll make us hungry down the road.”
Hill stayed between 87-90 mph the whole night and in five complete innings totaled 11 strikeouts and walked two batters without giving up a hit.
“We had heard that (Hill) was really good,” Farlow said. “I think he is a Pearl River signee. We are not used to seeing stuff like that. We are seeing some good arms right now, and I hope that helps us down the road for our division because everybody in our division has at least one good arm. Hopefully, this will get us ready for division games.”
Brewer gave up just two hits and a walk in his relief appearance while striking out two batters.
While the effective pitching performances mostly highlighted the night, the Tornados’ lack of offense was a significant issue in their loss.
“We had 10 or 11 hits the first two games, but we weren’t facing the pitching that we have been facing since then. We haven’t done a whole lot offensively this year,” Farlow said. “I think our team batting average was like .250 coming into tonight. I’m sure it went down after tonight. We seem to just be getting two or three hits, but we have won some games doing that. The ball kind of bounced our way in a few of these games that we kind of stole at the end. But we just have to get better offensively and at least put the ball in play against these good pitchers and make their defense field and throw you out.”
In total, Purvis (5-2) had three hits, stranded 10 runners on base, six of reached base with two outs, and struck out 13 times.
“We have to look at this as making us better,” Farlow said. “It seemed like every time we got somebody on base; we had two outs. If we can ever get anybody on base with nobody out, then you might score a couple of runs. Then maybe it’s a 4-2 and then one hit away from a tied game.”
