This Thursday through Saturday will be big days for area baseball fans with the 37th annual Heart of Oklahoma Baseball tournament taking center stage.

In addition to the host Dragons, who open the three-day tourney at 5:30 today Thursday against Little Axe, in the field are Community Christian, Casady, Anadarko, Bridge Creek, Crossings, and the OKC Mets.

“This year we are bringing in some new teams like OKC Mets and Bridge Creek, Purcell Head Coach Cole Sharp said.

“Overall, this will be a good tournament with good teams. It’s going to be a competitive tournament,” Sharp confirmed.

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

Purcell, who is coming off a 6-3 loss at the hands of Sulphur Monday.

“We just had too many free passes and Sulphur had a couple of timely hits. We just need to be better in those situations, the coach said.

Kash Knowles took the loss on the bump with relief help from Deaken Dobbins.

Cash Cook went 2-3 with a solo home run.

“Our bats again were quiet for the most part,” the coach said.

A 7-1 victory over Vanoss April 2 stopped a short losing streak. Prior to that, Tuttle pinned a 9-6 district loss on the Dragons March 31 in Purcell.

Purcell enters the annual tournament at 11-6.

In the 9-6 loss to Tuttle, the Tigers went off on the Dragons in their half of the fourth inning when they pushed across seven runs, erasing a 3-0 deficit.

“I thought Brody threw well for the first  three innings but in the fourth is where the Tuttle hitters started to time him up,” head coach Cole Sharp said. “Tuttle is a really good hitting team and any good team will make adjustments and get the timing down and that is what happened.”

Preston Kane tossed a pair of innings in relief and Deaken Dobbins threw the final two innings to close the game out.

“I thought Deaken threw well against Tuttle, not giving up any runs against that tough line up. There’s not an easy out in the lineup, the coach said.

Sharp noted after the catastrophic fourth inning his club didn’t throw in the towel.

“That was tough for us but we didn’t quit,” Sharp said. “We kept responding making it a game.”

  Bryce Blair was the big stick for the Dragons at the plate going 3-3 with 3 RBI’s. Dobbins went 2-4 and Cash Cook went 2-3 with an RBI.

Dobbins and Kane combined to scatter six hits in the victory over Vanoss. Dobbins got the pitching victory with Kane giving up the only Vanoss run. Dobbins struck out six Wolves in four innings of work. Kane fanned four hitters in the three innings he pitched.

The Dragons shot out of the gate like an Artemis rocket to the moon scoring four runs in the first two innings.

“Deaken Dobbins is doing a good job in the leadoff spot getting on base this year for us,” Sharp said.

Dobbins went 2-4, including a double, with an RBI, Cash Cook had a big day going 2-3 with two RBI’s and a home run. Cooper Selman, who also doubled in the game, went 2-4 with an RBI.

“We needed that because we had been on a losing skid,” Sharp said. “I thought we did a great job of responding from the Tuttle series and taking care of business beating 2A No. 12 Vanoss.

Purcell out-hit the Wolves 10-6 in the contest.

The Dragons will host Star Spencer in a district double header starting at 5 p.m. next Monday and travel to Asher next Tuesday with a 4:30 p.m. start.