Purdy wins district title over Pierce City in extra innings

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By Derek Shore (For OzarksSportsZone.com)

Pierce City, Mo – What more could you want in a district title game?

Purdy and Pierce City High School baseball teams did not disappoint on Tuesday night.

In fact, there was a little bit of everything – timely offense, stingy defense, and gut-wrenching tension at times – and by the final pitch, Purdy rallied past Pierce City to secure a 6-5 victory in an extra inning thriller, claiming the Class 2, District 12 championship.

“We didn’t do a lot of things right, but we battled,” Purdy head coach Josh Hughes said. “I just told them after we got the trophy presented, ‘We earned that.’ That was an earned win. Pierce City didn’t give it away. We didn’t give it away. We both battled.

“I mean, how fun was that game? Going into the seventh, I walked by (B.J. Curry, Pierce City’s head coach) and he looks at me and he goes, ‘This is a blast.’ I said, ‘I have been in a lot of these games, but I have never been in this type of game in a district championship.’”

The Eagles of Pierce City jumped out of the gates with all of the momentum, though.

Pierce City came one hitter from batting around to open the game. Dallas Kleiboeker, Aaron Garner, Hunter Tindell, Donell Kleiboeker, and Gage Brown all singled en route to an early 3-0 lead off Adam Humphrey.

The Eagles of Purdy were able to get on the board in the third inning when Jose Sanchez plated home Mason Schallert on a 6-3 groundout. Purdy failed to capitalize and get closer with the bases-loaded as Hunter Hatfield worked around a pair of walks.

CLICK HERE FOR PHOTOS OF THE GAME

“Give credit where credit is due,” Hughes said. “Hatfield made some huge pitches when we had runners on and you got to give credit to their defense. They made some plays, too.”

Piece City answered right back thanks to a solo home run from Tindell, who unloaded on an Humphrey offering and took it over the left-center field fence for a 4-1 lead.

“I was trying to hit my spots and throw some strikes,” Humphrey said. “They hit the ball pretty well. I got hit a little bit, but got it dialed back in and we just battled back.”

Meanwhile, in the fifth inning, Purdy pulled even closer via RBI singles from Hunter Cook and Humphrey to make it 4-3.

Tindell, who opened the fifth inning with a free pass, came around to score on a Donell Kleiboeker RBI single to give Pierce City a 5-3.

And suddenly the tides turned for the Eagles of Purdy as they continued to do what they do best.

Battle.

After Sanchez led off the sixth by way of a hit by pitch, Kyler Propps, Schallert, and Andrew Martinez followed with walks, scoring Sanchez to make it 5-4. Cook promptly tied the game with a sacrifice fly.

Down the stretch, though, Pierce City had its share of opportunities in the sixth and seventh innings as two runners picked off at first base squandered their chances of getting the lead back.

“The first (pick off) wasn’t really by design,” Humphrey said. “I was just checking the runner and see if he was off too far – then I got him. The second one I kind of missed a sign and it was supposed to be a pitch out, but I picked him off and it worked out.

“That gave us some momentum going into the next inning,” he added.

In the bottom of the seventh, Bill Ashley smacked a double to open the inning and that was when Hughes pulled Humphrey and summoned unsung hero Zane Brown to the mound.

Brown put out the fire, stranding the bases-loaded after punching out the side in the seventh.

After Martinez reached on an error to open the eighth and Cook was hit by a pitch, that set the stage for Humphrey. He drove in the go-ahead run on an RBI single.

“I was looking for a fastball,” Humphrey said. “I was going to pound that first pitch fastball, but it didn’t work out. He decided to come off-speed and I was sitting on it. I cranked it and sent it down the line.”

Then Brown, who threw 11 of his 12 pitches for strikes in the bottom of the eighth, struck out the side to close out a 6-5 win for Purdy.

“You just got to do the same ole, same ole,” Brown said. “You got to just throw strikes and trust your pitches.”

With the win, Purdy and its seniors garnered its third district title over the last four years.

“Without getting emotional and all that, I have coached these kids since they were younger,” Hughes said. “They played with my son growing up. It is a fun group to coach. I kind of left them be as seventh and eighth graders and let them get out on their own and others guys coach them.

“Then I brought them back in and we win that one as a freshmen. We didn’t expect to win it as freshmen and we did. As sophomores, we had a really good group and had a good run. We had the most wins in school history. Last year, we felt like we kind of underperformed.

“Overall, we didn’t get that district title we thought we could. This year, we have been set on this game. This game we talked about all year long.”

Hughes was also quick to credit Pierce City.

“We didn’t care who we played, but we kind of figured it would be Pierce City,” he added. “They are one of the best teams in the state. You got to give Curry credit and those nine seniors. That is a phenomenal group of kids.”

Purdy (20-6) is now set to host the sectional round on Tuesday. Game time to be determined, but they will play the winner of New Covenant/Crane.

“We have seen Crane,” Hughes said. “They beat us this year. A really good coached team. A really good team. Another senior-heavy team. New Covenant we haven’t seen, but they beat Crane by one. Crane beat us by one and Pierce City beat us by one earlier in the year. We just beat them by one.

“(We are) ready.”

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