In a matchup between two of the area's finest on the softball diamond, Purdy executed on Pierce City's untimely mistakes in the field and rode starting hurler Hallie Henderson to the finish for an 8-3 win on Military Appreciation Night, Wednesday.
"It's huge," said Purdy head coach Lori Videmschek following the win over the Lady Eagles from Pierce City. "Whenever you play Pierce City, it's always a dogfight. There a good team and they're going to work their tails off. You can't let them outwork you.
"I told the kids from the beginning when we have played them the last five-six years, and we'll probably see them in districts next week. This was a big win for us and tomorrow we look to get the one-seed going into our district."
With a week layoff from throwing in game action, Henderson struggled to locate her pitches at times. She labored in the first allowing a run, but shutout the Lady Eagles in Green over the next four frames, retiring ten straight at one point.
"(Henderson) did a really good job," said Videmschek. "We struggled on (hitting) our spots. She hasn't pitched in a week to batters, so we had to try and do some things."
After scoring two runs, Pierce City would load the bases with no outs in the sixth and threaten for more. Henderson escaped the jam with a pair of strikeouts and a groundout.
PHOTOS: PIERCE CITY VS. PURDY
"She buckled down (in that situation) and hit her spots," said Videmschek. "She made some really good pitches at critical times and our defense was behind her to take care of it.
"That's what we have done all year. She's not going to be a strikeout pitcher, but she will pitch it, and our defense will be there to play good defense. That's what we did today."
In the first, Pierce City opened the scoring thanks to a sac fly from Raley, who was 1-for-3 on the day. However, that's when the visitors defense went south, and Purdy rallied with three consecutive RBI base hits from Casey Ellison (double to score Sami House), Breanna Keeler (double to score Ellison), and Mickey Schad (single to score Keeler), respectively.
Schad reached second on the single but was gunned down attempting to score on a Zoe Brown one-bagger in the bottom half of the second. The Ozark 7 Champs' busted the game open with a five-spot in the third with the most significant hit coming from Brown, who doubled home Ellison (reached on a single) and Keeler (reached via a fielding error).
"Offensively, we started coming around in the second and third inning," said Videmchek. "(We) started hitting the ball and doing some things we needed to do like situational hitting and we scored runs off them."
That hole proved to be too much for Pierce City to overcome as Henderson retired the Lady Eagles top of the order with a strikeout and two groundouts in a quick seventh inning to secure the 8-3 win for Purdy.
At the plate for home Lady Eagles, Brown collected three hits with two RBI. Morgan Schilly singled twice and had an RBI while Rion Boyd tripled and scored on a single from House, who came across to score as well. Purdy seven, eight, and nine-hole hitters (Ellison, Keeler, and Schad) went a combined 4-for-9 with four RBI and two runs scored.
For Pierce City, starter Ragan Blinzler worked six innings allowing eight runs (three earned, unofficially) on eleven hits. Blinzler, who has a no-no to her credit, struck out a batter and didn't give away any free passes.
Raley, Jones, Jessica Prescott and Lauren Kennedy had each of their four hits. The Lady Eagles head coach Kacy Gunnels admitted her club's defensive effort was the cause of the offense lagging after the fielding miscues.
With that said, she remains upbeat going into districts.
"We will be ready for districts," said Gunnels. "The girls know we definitely didn't show all that we had and what we are capable of doing. I think if we show up on a game day with our full ability and showing what we are capable of doing. I think we'll be competitive."
Purdy (22-2 overall) hosts Clever tomorrow afternoon at 5:00 PM for senior night, while Pierce City (16-5 overall) also has senior night as they welcome Mt. Vernon at home
Purdy – 8, Pierce City – 3
Pierce City 1 0 0 0 0 2 0
Purdy 0 3 5 0 0 0 X
