It took three games to get past St. Stanislaus, but the Purvis Tornadoes have moved on to the third round of the 4A playoffs to face the East Central Hornets (22-4).
Purvis will host Game 1 Thursday before traveling to East Central for Game 2 on Friday. If necessary, Game 3 will be played at Purvis on Saturday, and all game times are set for 7 p.m.
“I don’t know a whole lot about them,” Purvis coach Tony Farlow said. “I know they have one big pitcher who’s supposed to be a stud. We beat them in the playoffs a couple of years ago, but I know they’re always scrappy. They’re around late in the year every year. Those guys are hard-nosed kids down there, and they get after us.”
Two aces with a sub-1.00 earned run average anchor the Hornets’ pitching staff. Mississippi State football signee senior Brad Cumbest is 9-0 with a 0.48 ERA in 58.1 innings this season. He has also struck out 77 batters compared to just 15 walks. Senior Dawson Hall has equally impressive statistics, too. He’s 8-2 with a 0.96 ERA in 51 innings, and he has 60 strikeouts with 11 walks.
As a team, East Central has an ERA of 1.32 compared Purvis’ 2.50. Cumbest and Hall will almost certainly be matched up with Purvis sophomores Jesse Johnson (8-0, 1.35 ERA) and Dakota Lee (7-1, 2.69).
A silver lining to going three games against St. Stanislaus was Farlow got to give some other pitchers valuable experience on the mound. Senior Keyshawn Bolar, who is fifth on the team in innings logged, started the Game 3 contest, while sophomore Mason Dilmore entered the game in relief.
The playoff experience was important because Farlow believes the 2018 Tornadoes have more pitching depth than any of the state champion Purvis Tornadoes.
“You’d hope those guys got to throw more during the season other than on Saturdays,” Farlow said. “I’ve told them all year, ‘Guys, we’ve got more pitching on this season than any of those teams that has a sign hanging up in the outfield has. We’re five or six guys deep, and obviously, we can get beat with any of them on the mound but they’re all going to give us a chance to win.
“I know the competition is supposed to get a little better and it’s fixing to get stiff, but we have some guys who we can run out there that I think will give us a chance to win.”
Cumbest and Hall are also two of the team’s leading hitters. Cumbest has a team-best .481 batting average with eight home runs and 31 RBI, and Hall is second on the team with a .356 average and two home runs.
