Baseball fans are in for a treat as the 36th annual Heart of Oklahoma Baseball tournament kicks off  three day run today (Thursday).

In addition to the host Dragons, this year’s field includes Community Christian, Anadarko, Casady, Stratford, Crossings, Asher and Little Axe.

Purcell opens the tournament against Little Axe with the game scheduled to start at 5:30 p.m.

A complete bracket can be found in this week’s Register.

Rain shortened last week’s schedule with the Dragons only getting to play one game but they made the most out of it, run-ruling Shawnee 11-1 April 3 at Shawnee.

Led by junior Casey Billingsley’s 4-4 and two RBI outing at the plate, the Dragons pounded out 15 hits. Cash Cook was 3-5 with two RBIs while Brody Walkup smacked three his in four trips to the plate and had an RBI.

Boston Knowles, Walkup, Billingsley and Parker Page all doubled in the contest. Boston was 2-5 with a pair of RBIs at the plate while brother Kash went 2-4 with an RBI.

Deaken Dobbins started the game on the mound for the Dragons and got the win. He had relief assistance from Preston Kane and Walkup the trio combined to scatter eight hits while Shawnee committed five errors.

‘I thought all the pitchers threw well and did a great job for the team,” head coach Cole Sharp said.

“Overall, I was pleased with the way we came out and jumped on them early and also how we finished the game off, scoring six runs in the seventh,” Sharp said.

Purcell built a 5-1 lead heading into the seventh when they pushed across the six runs to complete the run-rule.