PURVIS – Purvis hammered Lawrence County 11-1 in six innings in Division 7-4A high school baseball action Thursday night at Purvis High School. Purvis scored seven runs in its final two at-bats to break open a tight game and end the contest via the 10-run rule.

With the win, Purvis, coached by Tony Farlow, improved to 12-5 overall, and 6-2 in Division 7-4A play. Lawrence County, coached by Josh Garrett, fell to 12-6 overall and 4-4 in the division.

“We didn’t have a very good night,” Garrett said. “I thought our pitchers competed pretty well, but we didn’t do much at the plate and didn’t play very well defensively. Purvis deserves credit. They did everything right.”

The win completed a two-game series sweep for Purvis. The Tornadoes handled Lawrence County 10-3 in Monticello on Tuesday night.

LCHS grabbed an early-and brief-1-0 lead. Kasey Durr led off with a single, moved to second on a Josh Stephens sacrifice bunt, continued to third on a Kody Smith single and scored on a Logan Greenlee groundout. The Cougars didn’t do much offensively after that. In the top of the third, Durr and Stephens had back-to-back hits, but Lawrence County ended up leaving the bases loaded.

Meanwhile Purvis, the reigning South 4A champions, quickly struck back. The Tornadoes, whose starting lineup featured nine seniors, scored a run on two hits in the bottom of the first. In the second, Purvis tallied two runs on three hits. Purvis pitcher Blake Young whacked a solo homer in the third, giving his team a 4-1 lead.

LCHS left-hander Josh Stephens relieved Durr in the bottom of the fourth and pitched his way out of a jam. In the fifth and sixth, however, the wheels came off on the Cougars. Purvis scored seven runs on five hits and took advantage of multiple miscues to end the game early.

“I thought we had played a very decent game until the bottom of the fifth,” long-time LCHS assistant Craig Davis said, “but we really rear ended-up those last two innings. I hated getting 10-runned, and I felt particularly bad for Josh. He didn’t deserve that fate.”

Will Curtis led Purvis with three hits. Blake Young and Nathan Roseberry each had two. Young hurled a six-inning game. He allowed four hits, walked two and struck out six.

Lawrence County continued to struggle in the bottom of its lineup. All four Cougar hits came from the first three hitters. The rest of the LCHS lineup went a collective 0-for-14 with six strikeouts.

“We’re still looking for more productivity from the bottom half,” Davis said. “We’ve got some guys down there that we think are going to be good players, but they’re struggling some against guys that are two or three years older. It’s a pretty steep learning curve.”