Dragons hosting 34th Heart

Purcell’s Dragons are hosting the 34th annual Heart of Oklahoma baseball Tournament starting today (Thursday) and running through Friday.

The championship game is slated for 4 p.m. Saturday.

In addition to the Dragons, this year’s field includes Newcastle, Destiny Christian, Asher, Pauls Valley, CCS, Lexington and Little Axe.

The Dragons open the first round at 12:30 p.m. against Little Axe.

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

“This will be a competitive tournament,” head coach Cole Sharp said. “There are good teams in it. Every game will be exciting and I’m looking forward to our tournament starting Thursday.”

Monday Purcell erupted for seven big runs in the bottom of the fourth inning to erase a 4-3 deficit and went on to run-rule Holdenville at home, 14-4.

Boston Knowles was a beast at the plate and a thief on the base paths.

The sophomore was a perfect 4-4 with his bat and swiped four bases.

As a team Purcell stole 11 bases with Cole Smedley stealing three and Jett Tyler, two.

Also recording steals in the game were Drew Kimbrell and Zach Idlett, who pocketed the pitching victory, striking out seven in six innings of work.

Tyler went 3-3 at the plate with a pair of RBIs.

Smedley was 2-2 with two RBIs and Idlett went 2-3 with three RBIs.

Smedley, Knowles and Bryce Blair all had doubles in the rout.

As a team, the Dragons pounded out 13 hits.

“From the second inninng on we scored in every inning and we like to see that as an offensive production. Scoring in every inning puts pressure on the opposing team,” head coach Cole Scott said.

“We took care of business and got a key district win,” the coach continued. “We have to keep this momentum going into the next two weeks, especially down the stretch here getting ready for the playoffs.”

Last week the Dragons went .500 dropping a 12-10 contest to Heritage Hall and fell to Newcastle, 8-4 in the championship contest of the Newcastle Wood Bat Tournament.

But the Dragons shut out CCS 2-0 and topped Clinton, 12-4 in the tournament to reach the title game.

Boston Knowles paced the Dragon offense against Clinton going 2-2 with two RBIs. He walked once and stole a base.

Smedley, Idlett and Kimbrell had the other three Purcell hits. Smedley drove in a pair of base runners.

Deaken Dobbins pitched a complete game holding the Red Tornadoes to two hits.

“Deaken Dobbins did what we asked him to do today.  He threw strikes and played good defense behind him although we still need to clean up some things in the field,” Sharp said.

“I like Deaken’s competitive nature on the mound. I was pleased with the effort from all our kids.  We had kids diving for balls and you can’t coach effort that is within the kids doing that and that is what a coach loves to see from his kids,” the coach said.

In the victory over CCS to begin the tournament Knowles went the distance scattering three hits over the course of the seven inning affair.

Parker Page had the only Dragon hit in the game.

“Boston is pitching well for us and he continued that against CCS,” Sharp said. “He attacked the zone all day and put pressure on the CCS hitters all game. He came  after them and competed. He was locked in all game. He only had 88 pitches through seven complete innings,” the coach said.

Cole said he averaged 12.5 pitches per inning which is really good.

“Usually the average is 16-18.” Sharp said. “He had quick innings all day. Our bats were quiet most of the day only getting one hit which came from Parker Page.  I was proud of the way our kids came out against CCS  and we played a complete defensive game. That is what we have to have all the time.”

Page took the loss on the mound against Newcastle when once again the Dragon sticks were relatively silent. Logan Roberts came in relief for three innings.

“Give Newcastle pitchers credit they did a good job keeping us off balance,” Sharp said.

“We did have a little rally in the third when we scored two runs.

“I was very pleased with our bench and kids in being involved and having good energy throughout the game as well as the fans who came and supported us. It was a playoff type atmosphere with the energy we brought. We have to continue to bring that same energy through the reminder of the year,” Sharp said.

Purcell trimmed their errors from eight in the first Heritage Hall loss to only three in the second but the result was the same, a 12-10 Heritage Hall victory.

The Dragons pounded out eight hits with Knowles and Roberts leading the way with two hits each.

One of Knowles’ hits was a triple. He paced the squad with three RBIs. Sharp also got hits from Idlett, Smedley and Carter Goldston. Designated hitter Bryce Blair had a two RBI single. Idlett, Smedley, Page and Goldston all had RBIs in the game.

Purcell was scheduled to travel to Holdenville on Tuesday before hosting the Heart later in the week.

Dragon notes:

Purcell notched three players on the Newcastle All-Tournament team including Logan Roberts, Boston Knowles and Parker Page.

Purcell is scheduled to play host to Bethel next Monday and travel to Bethel on Tuesday.