BAY ST. LOUIS – With the season on the line, the momentum of Game 3 between Purvis and St. Stanislaus flipped with just one pitch.
That one pitch came in the bottom of the seventh inning, and it gave the Rock-a-Chaws the advantage of Purvis Monday night in Game 3 of the first-round series. Braxton Bean took the second pitch he saw to left-center field, and it ended Purvis’ season.
Bean’s hit gave St. Stanislaus two runs and a 3-2 win over the Tornadoes.
“I was just hoping we could make it to the next round, but that’s baseball,” Purvis coach Tony Farlow said.
Purvis’ two runs in the third inning and a strong pitching performance from junior starter Jesse Johnson weren’t enough either. Johnson pitched 5.1 innings of scoreless ball while scattering five hits. He also struck out nine batters with zero walks.
“Jesse gave us a chance to win, but we didn’t hit the ball this whole series,” said. “I thought our kids fought hard, but is disappointing to lose that way.”
While Johnson was dealing, the Purvis offense squandered early opportunities and went completely cold to close out the game. The Tornadoes had a runner picked off first to end the inning, then had a base runner tagged out in each of the second and third frames.
In the third, though, Purvis was able to scratch across two runs before an inning-end out on the base paths. With the bases loaded and one out, Parker Sharff reached on a fielder’s choice that scored Hunter Robinson. During the next at-bat, Bryston West singled to plate Johnson but West was thrown out trying to reach second on the play.
After the Tornadoes stranded two more base runners in the fourth inning, they were retired 10 straight times to close out the game. Purvis only had one hit in the game, but two St. Stanislaus pitchers combined to walk nine Purvis batters.
“They outhit us 8-1,” Farlow said. “We had one dang hit for the whole ballgame. It’s kind of hard to win with only one hit. It’s been kind of the story of this series. We’ve left so many guys on base. A big part of our season was lack of timely hits.”
The Rock-a-Chaws had their fair share of early scoring opportunities, but Johnson pitched his way out it until the sixth inning. Johnson struck out the side in the second and fourth innings, and stranded three runners through his outing.
“It was an outstanding performance by Jesse,” Farlow said. “I’m proud of the team, I’m proud of the effort.”
With the bases loaded and only one out, Dakota Lee entered to pitch for Johnson. Lee struck out the first St. Stanislaus batter he faced, then caught a line drive up the middle that potentially could have gotten through the infield and scored runs. Lee, however, kept the Rocks off the board in the sixth.
The seventh was a different story, however. Ethan McNeil and Tristan Bush reach had one-out singles in the inning. The bases would eventually get loaded with two outs, then Lee hit two consecutive batters to make it a 2-1 game.
Two pitches later, Bean smacked his game-winning double to send St. Stanislaus to the second round.
Purvis’ season ends with a 14-11 overall record.
