Purcell to host Regional

Despite committing four errors, Purcell rode the pitching arm of Katelynn Carwile to a 4-3 8 inning victory over Tecumseh last week to claim the District Championship and secure the Regional Tournament.

Carwile fanned 19 Lady Savage batters and coach Sarah Jones got home run bombs from Brook Fleming and Chelsea Spain in the thrilling victory.

With the bases juiced in the bottom of the eighth, Karson Jennings hit a change up to left center to knock in Spain, who was on third.

“In her previous at bat their pitcher got her with a change up,” Jones said. “She made the adjustment and had the game winning sacrifice fly for us.”

Spain and Fleming were both 2-4 while Carwile and Hannah Buchanan both had hits.

“Katelynn absolutely pitched lights out,” the coach said. “She did her job the entire game, holding them to three hits. It might have been an ugly win but it was a win.”

The Regional will be here next Wednesday and Thursday with Weatherford, Chickasha and McLoud coming to town.

Purcell will open the tournament against McLoud at 11 a.m. Wednesday.

After the Tecumseh victory the Dragons turned around and whipped up on Davis last Friday, 10-6 but were still bitten by the error bug.

They committed six, which led to a 6-2 Davis lead heading into the bottom of the fifth.

Fleming got the pitching victory in the circle and was helped by some hefty hitting.

Carwile went 3-3 with a pair of RBIs. Spain and Addie Stanton were both 2-4 and both had RBIs.

Jennings and Buchanan both got a hit in three trips to the plate. Jennings had three RBIs in the contest and Buchanan one.

“We didn’t come out ready to play,” Jones said. “We got too comfortable and slacked on defense and they scored six runs on our six errors.”

So that’s what the Dragons worked on over the weekend.

“I told them y’all are going to have to figure this out because right now this is ridiculous and they did just that in the bottom of the fifth,” she said.

The Dragons blew the game wide open with eight runs in the bottom of the frame to seal the victory.

“Fleming did a great job in the circle,” Jones said. “Our defense just needs to back her up. It was a good game to learn from and build on for what needs to happen over the next two weeks.” 

Dale’s Lady Pirates paid a call on the Dragons Monday and came away with a 5-4 victory over the now 20-3 Dragons.

Purcell out-hit Dale 12-5 but stranded eight base runners in the loss.

“It was a good game to see where we are since they are back to back 2A State Champions,” Jones said. “We couldn’t string hits together to score runs and left too many people on base.

“Our defense looked much better and our infield made some really good plays,” the coach said.  “It would have been a completely different ball game if we had strung hits together in just one inning.”

Fleming and Buchanan led the offense both going 3-3. Buchanan had a pair of RBIs and Fleming one. Carwile went 2-4 at the plate.

Fleming tossed five innings with one strike out and Carwile threw a pair of innings fanning two.

Dragon notes:

Purcell played Westmoore Tuesday and will travel to Lone Grove today (Thursday). Head coach Sarah Jones said a game will be played Monday with the opponent yet to be determined.