On Senior Night, Purdy welcomed Pierce City in an early preview of a potential district playoff contest. Unfortunately for the visiting Eagles, the host Eagles starter Sydney Birge was in "mid-season form" leading them to a comfortable 5-1 win Thursday.
Coming off winning Ozark 7 Conference Player of the Year, Birge went the distance and allowed a lone run (unearned) to score on six hits.
"It means a lot," said Birge on what it means to go the distance on senior night. "I love baseball, and I want to go as far as possible."
On an unofficial 93 pitches dealt, the southpaw was successful mixing up and spotting his fastball and curveball particularly down in the zone as he recorded six punchouts and nine groundouts against Pierce City.
"It was good," said Birge when asked about the outing. "I worked hard; it was there (fastball and curve), and I hit my spots."
To support Birge, Purdy produced its early offense unconventionally capitalizing on the visiting Eagles fielding miscues but played a little small ball to manufacture runs as they busted the game open going into the final half inning.
"We've still got things to do," said Purdy head coach Joshua Hughes. "We did a good job of executing and got a couple of bunts down tonight; doing little things. We did a good job early on.
"Defensively, that allowed our offense to come in late in the game and get some key hits and drive in some runs. Early in the game; we got a triple by Dusty (Videmschek) which gave us the lead, and that was huge."
The hosting Eagles jumped out to an early 1-0 lead thanks to that Videmschek RBI triple, plating the speedy Jonathan Salazar in the first. After a missed opportunity in the second, Purdy waited until the fourth to add two runs of insurance.
Reaching on a hit by pitch, Adam Humphrey advanced to second on a walk before touching home plate on a Kyler Propps sac bunt which encountered an errant throw from Moreland at third capped by a sac fly from James Hughlett, scoring Mason Schallert, who had walked.
Pierce City finally broke up Birge's shutout in the fifth with an RBI fielder's choice from Bill Ashley as that would stand for all of the offense. The lack of offense from the visitors, allowed the hosting Eagles to stretch out their lead with a back-to-back run-scoring hit by pitches, all of which charged to Ashley, who relieved Moreland as Purdy topped Pierce City, 5-1.
The hosting Eagles banged out eight hits, Hughlett (1-2 with two RBI, Salazar (1-3 with an RBI), and Videmschek (2-for-4 with an RBI) accounted for half. Birge and Aldaba singled in three at-bats, Humphrey doubled and plucked twice; Schallert doubled, and Propps walked twice.
On the visiting side (Pierce City), Moreland lasted 5 1/3 innings, allowing four runs (two earned, unofficially) on eight hits. The righty struck out two, walked two, and hit two batters. As an offense, they had seven hits with Moreland having three of those. Hunter Hatfield and Gage Brown added two singles apiece.
"It's been a fun group to coach," said Pierce City's first-year head coach B.J. Curry. "We got a lot of really good kids. We're learning on the job and as we play games and being in situations. Tonight was good for us when the intensity got up.
"We're just trying to figure out as a young team, 'Hey, how do we handle that and how are we at our best in situations.' We've just got to be in those situations to figure that out."
In the meantime, Purdy's Hughes is conscious of postseason baseball coming up, but for right now is focused on the remainder of the regular season schedule.
"I just told the guys that," said Hughes referring to playoff aspirations. "That was a game between two undefeated teams in the district. We gave ourselves a shot, and that's what we asked for, but we've got two conference games coming up, so we're focused on winning those next two.
"If we play the way we can, we've got a good shot. Looking into districts right now, we're not looking yet, but we're close, and we always look to compete."
Pierce City's Curry feels there are improvements to be made, but says they are in a good position for when districts commence.
"Overall, our offensive approach has to get a little better," said Curry. "Overall for this year, we've thrown the ball well and played good defense. I think we're in a good spot.
"Going forward, we're in a good spot. It's no secret; offensively we have got to get a little bit better.
Next up, Purdy (13-5) hosts Exeter tomorrow, while Pierce City (9-7) plays in the Miller Invitational Tournament from May 3rd-to-7th.
Purdy 5, Pierce City 1
Pierce City – 0 0 0 0 1 0 0
Purdy – 1 0 0 2 0 2 x
