PURVIS – The Purvis Tornadoes defeated the Lawrence County Cougars 7-1 in Region 7-4A high school baseball action Thursday night at Purvis High School.

Purvis tallied four runs in the bottom of the sixth to break up a tight game, and secure an important regional win.

With the win, Purvis, the reigning Mississippi 4A state champion, improved to 9-7 overall, and 5-1 in Region 7-4A play. Lawrence County fell to 7-8 overall, and 2-4 in the region.

“Our guys played hard, and played pretty well,” said ninth-year Lawrence County coach Cory Keyes.

“The final score doesn’t show it, but I thought our guys really brought it tonight. We pitched pretty well, defended well, and I thought we had some really good swings tonight,” Keyes added.

“Unfortunately, we didn’t get much to show for it. Plenty of credit for that goes to Coach (Tony) Farlow and his team. They made the plays on some balls that we really struck well.”

Purvis sidearmer Jacob Williams went a strong five-plus to earn the win. In the midst of a jam, in the sixth inning, Farlow handed the ball to Nathan Roseberry, who worked out of the trouble to earn a save. Purvis led only 3-1 at the time.

Purvis scored two in the bottom of the second, to earn a 2-0 lead.

Lawrence County got one back in the top of the third, but the Cougars squandered multiple opportunities to do more damage. The Tornadoes added an insurance run in the bottom of the fifth, then blew the game open with the four-run sixth-inning outburst.

LCHS left-hander Jordan McCaffrey gave it a good fight, working into the sixth inning, when he was relieved by John Hedgepeth.

Matt Patterson led the Cougars in batting, with two hits. McCaffrey, Cade Turner, Will Jackson and Patrick Little each had one hit.

Purvis, Brady Anderson, Braxton Carter, Shelton Smith, Lane Ratliff, Will Curtis, and Bryant Hansleigh each had singles.

In junior varsity play, LCHS won by a 9-3 score. Brennan Lang worked five strong innings. Hayden Davis, Noah McLaurin, and Kewaun May each had two hits for the Cougars. Joshua Stephens, Logan Greenlee, Carter Hall, and Lang each got one hit.

Lawrence County will host Vickburg in junior varsity/varsity action on Saturday. Junior varsity play begins at 11 a.m.