By Stan Caldwell
stanmansportsfan.com
PURVIS – It is fitting that the season-long battle between archrivals Sumrall and Purvis, two of the state’s premier baseball programs, should come down to a final, winner-take-all game for a chance to play for a state championship.
The host Tornadoes made sure Game 3 would happen with an emphatic 8-0 victory over the Bobcats in Game 2 of the best-of-3 game Class 4A South State final series Thursday night at Tony Farlow Field.
The deciding third game will be at 7 p.m. Monday at Larry Knight Field in Sumrall. The Bobcats (28-6) are looking to reach the 4A state finals for the third straight season; Purvis (29-6) is seeking its first trip to the finals since 2014.
Sophomore right-hander Jo Jo Parker pitched a two-hit shutout through 5-2/3 innings and his teammates backed him up with a 12-hit assault. It was a welcome sight after Tuesday’s 6-1 defeat in the first game of the series at Sumrall.
“We had a great game tonight,” said Purvis coach Tony Farlow. “We’ve been playing like this most of the second half of the season. Obviously, we didn’t on Tuesday, so it’s a big win for us tonight.”
If there were any nerves on the part of the Tornadoes with their season on the line Thursday, it didn’t show at all.
“I thought we were focused,” said Farlow. “I was relaxed, and I think the team was just locked into what they had to do tonight. “
Parker (8-1), the 4A Mr. Baseball for Mississippi, struck out eight batters, walked three and hit three, so there was some traffic on the basepaths for Sumrall, but either he made a pitch or his defense made a play to get him out of trouble.
“They shut us down Tuesday,” said Parker. “We had to come back today with more energy. We had to show them what we were about.
“My two-seamer was probably working best for me tonight. That, my curve, my four-seam, about anything I threw was working.”
The Bobcats got a hit batter to third in the first inning, but Parker got a strikeout to end the inning. Sophomore Ethan Walker threw out a runner trying to steal in the second, and Sumrall’s first hit of the game in the third inning produced a key turning point in the game.
By then, the Tornadoes were already up 3-0 after scoring three runs in the bottom of the first inning.
Sophomore right-hander Leo Odom (2-3) started for Sumrall, but he was pulled after walking Parker and his twin brother Jacob.
“Leo has trouble with his command sometimes, and we saw early on that he didn’t have it,” said Sumrall coach Andy Davis. “We didn’t want to let them get ahead too quick. Obviously, that didn’t work out for us.”
Senior left-hander Keaton Mauldin came on to pitch, and Walker greeted him with a single to leftfield to load the bases.
Senior Damon Putnam smacked the key blow of the game, a single to right to score Jo Jo Parker, and Jacob Parker scored when the throw from the outfield was misplayed behind the plate.
“It really got us fired up getting out to a lead like that,” said Putnam. “We really didn’t hit the ball much the last game, so it was good to break out. Coming out and starting early was really big for us there.”
In the top of the third, Parker got two quick strikeouts, but he walked Sumrall senior Barrett Breazeale and hit senior Landon Holliman with a pitch to put two runners on base.
Bobcat senior Walker Long singled up the middle and Davis chose to challenge Jacob Parker’s arm in centerfield, sending Breazeale around third, and Parker made the Bobcats pay, firing a strike to Walker to tag the runner out at the plate.
“I’m not sure what they were thinking, with my brother out there,” said Jo Jo Parker. “H’s got an absolute cannon out there. He was hosed from the start. But, yeah, my defense played great tonight.”
Instead of a run in, and either runners at the corners or runners at second and third, the Tornadoes were out of the inning, and they capitalized on their fortune in a big way in the bottom of the third.
With one out, junior Austin Lawler doubled into the leftfield corner, then sophomore Cannon Turner hit a high flyball to rightfield that got lost in the twilight and dropped for a run-scoring triple. Junior Eli Lowe made it 5-0 with an RBI single.
“The twilight gets us on a flyball and it falls,” said Davis. “We had the guy out at the plate and the ball comes out of the catcher’s mitt. Should have had a play a third; outfielder threw it to the wrong base.
“If you look up breaks in baseball, Purvis got a lot of breaks tonight. And, for sure, they outplayed us, but they got a lot breaks and we didn’t.”
The Parker brothers broke the game open on consecutive pitches in the fourth off a tiring Mauldin.
With one out, Jo Jo Parker planted a 2-2 curveball just inside the rightfield foul pole, and Jacob smoked the next pitch way over the fence in right-centerfield.
“It was a curveball, and I knew it was coming,” said Jo Jo Parker. “He threw it the pitch before, and I hit it foul, so I knew it was coming again.”
Jo Jo Parker came into the game batting .495 with 14 home runs, while Jacob came in with a .447 average and 13 longballs.
“They’ve been solid for us all year,” said Farlow. “We kind of go as they go.”
Senior right-hander Carson Moon came on to pitch for Sumrall and promptly hit Walker. A stolen base and a balk moved the runner to third and the run came home on Putnam’s single up the middle.
Moon kept the Bobcats in the game the rest of the way, but they had little success against Parker, or Lowe, who came on with two out in the sixth and retired all four batters he faced.
While Sumrall will turn to its eighth-grade ace, right-hander Drew Davis, on Monday, Farlow was undecided about his starter for the deciding game. But he indicated that Jo Jo Parker would be available for limited work if needed.
“It will be a challenge to go over there Monday,” Farlow said. “But tonight was our night, and we’ll see what we can do Monday.”
Prep Baseball Linescore
Class 4A South State Finals
Game 2
Thursday at Purvis
Purvis 8, Sumrall 0
Sumrall 000 000 0 – 0 2 1
Purvis 302 300 x – 8 12 1
SUMRALL (28-6): Walker Long 1B; Leo Odom 1B. LP – Leo Odom (2-3); Also pitching – Keaton Mauldin; Carson Moon.
PURVIS (29-6): Jo Jo Parker HR (solo), 1B; Jacob Parker HR (solo), 2 1B; Ethan Walker 1BDamon Putnam 2 1B; Austin Lawler 2B; Cannon Turner 3B; Eli Lowe 2 1B. WP – Jo Jo Parker (8-1). Also pitching – Eli Lowe.
Photos courtesy of Van Tyner
Photos courtesy of Jesse Johnson
