SOUTHERN PINES — After entering the seventh down two runs, the Purnell Swett baseball team had to fight off Mother Nature and Pinecrest at home with the lead in the Southeastern Conference tournament championship on Friday.

With rain pouring down from a pop-up rain shower that lasted the length of their at bat in the top of the seventh, the Rams fought back to chip into the lead, but the tying run was left at second base as Pinecrest held on to a 4-3 win.

“We fought back, but we had five errors and when you have five errors you’ve got to hit it a lot,” Purnell Swett coach Bryan McDonald said. “I was proud of our teams effort, and hey, we will live to fight another day.”

The win gives the Patriots the conference title, as well as the No. 2 seed from the SEC when it comes to seeding for the 4A state playoffs. The Rams will wait for the seeding to be announced to see if they receive a wildcard berth for the playoffs.

Down to their last out, The Rams strung two hits together to put pressure on Pinecrest in the final inning. Ethan Chavis homered to right field to cut the lead down to one run. McKinley Strickland reached on a walk and then advanced to second on a balk to set up a ground ball to tie the game. Lucas Oxendine’s ground ball in the next at bat bounced right to Pinecrest short stop Tommy Vinson as he gathered the ball and threw to first first for the out to set up the postgame celebration.

Srickland pitched 4 1/3 innings for the Rams and allowed six hits and four runs that scored in the fifth inning. He also helped his cause in the fourth with a solo homer to left center field to put the Rams up 1-0 in the early goings. Getting caught up in several long innings, Strickland’s pitch count was high and forced the change in the fifth for McDonald.

The fifth inning was what did the Rams in and has been a point of emphasis all season for the Patriots.

“We were all frustrated (going into the fifth), we got the kids in and we really wanted to say ‘okay, we haven’t played our best baseball, but we’re still in this game,’” Pinecrest coach Jeff Hewitt said. “Our pitchers did a good job of keeping us in the game, especially with that lineup that Purnell Swett had out there. And with that being said, we won the fifth.”

In the big fifth inning for Pinecrest, it put runners on second and third within the first three at bats. Seth Caddell started the rally with a RBI single up the middle, Zach Martinez followed with a sacrifice fly to center field, Cadell scored on an error as he was scoring from third and the final run came on a Kodey Talbott single.

“The big inning happened when a routine ground ball to second base should’ve been made. If the routine ground ball gets made, the inning would’ve been different, but that’s on us,” McDonald said. “We just didn’t minimize our mistakes like we normally do.”

Purnell Swett answered in the next half inning with Cal Hunt scoring Chavis from third with the bases loaded and no outs in the sixth.

Ethan Chavis had two hits to lead Purnell Swett, while Carson Maples and Nik Pry each had two hits.

Fairmont lost in the Three Rivers Conference tournament championship game by a 5-2 score to Whiteville.

Jonathan Bym The Robesonian

Purnell Swett junior McKinley Strickland pitched 4 1/3 innings for the Rams and also had a home run in the fourth before Pinecrest captured the SEC title with a 4-3 win.

https://www.robesonian.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/05/web1_DSC_0518.jpgJonathan Bym The Robesonian

Purnell Swett junior McKinley Strickland pitched 4 1/3 innings for the Rams and also had a home run in the fourth before Pinecrest captured the SEC title with a 4-3 win.

Big fifth inning from Pats dooms Rams in SEC championship

By Jonathan Bym

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Jonathan Bym can be reached at 910-816-1977. Follow him on Twitter @Jonathan_Bym.