Big inning dooms Purnell Swett in third-round loss at Ashley

WILMINGTON — One half-inning of baseball changed everything in Purnell Swett’s third-round 4A state playoff game at Ashley on Saturday, with Rams pitching walking five batters and hitting another in a six-run fourth for the Screaming Eagles.

The Rams battled back, getting the tying run to the plate in the final inning, but ultimately fell short in an 8-6 defeat.

“That one inning got away from us,” Purnell Swett coach Jeff Lamb said. “I think we had five walks in that one inning; I pulled Keithyn (Hunt) and went to Braxton (Hunt), he struggled a little bit, and we brought Chris (Baker) in. … We battled, just that one inning got away from us and we couldn’t overcome it.”

With Purnell Swett (11-6) leading 3-2 after 3 1/2 innings, the first three batters were walked in the bottom of the fourth and Ashley’s Dom Farmentino singled to score Michael Brannin and tie the game.

After the Rams’ first pitching change of the frame, Yates Jernigan drew a walk to score Noah Dail for a 4-3 Ashley lead, then Branton Jernigan’s RBI groundout plated Maddox Green. After a hit batsman, Farmentino and Yates Jernigan scored on a ground ball with a throwing error. Drew Tyndall, who reached on that error, later scored on a wild pitch for an 8-3 lead.

Baker kept the Rams in the game, retiring all seven Ashley (13-3) batters he faced from the fourth inning to the end of the game, with one strikeout.

“When Chris came out (to the mound) I said ‘hold me at eight (runs),’ and he held us at eight,” Lamb said. “That’s the first time he’s toted the rubber in two years.”

A two-RBI double by Keithyn Hunt in the top of the sixth scored Kylan Ransom and Baker, pulling the Rams to within an 8-5 deficit. In the seventh, Cameron Fields reached on an error and scored on a Ransom RBI triple, making it 8-6 and bringing the tying run up to the plate, before a popout ended the game.

“They kept fighting; that’s all you can ask,” Lamb said. “It just didn’t go our way.”

Purnell Swett led entering the fourth after a three-run second inning. Jonathon Jacobs led off with a double, then scored when Ethan Wilkins doubled. Wilkins scored on a bunt single by Keithyn Hunt and Chris Baker, who reached on a single, scored on a double steal, giving the Rams a 3-1 lead.

“We had the inning we came in and scored three runs, and I kind of felt we went way up emotionally, and we didn’t stay — sometimes you need to stay even, and we went way up and then kind of flattened out a little bit,” Lamb said. “This is a game you’ve got to stay even keel for the most part. But tip your hats to them; they got it done and we didn’t tonight, but that’s baseball.”

Ashley scored one run in the first inning after loading the bases with no one out, with a Brannin RBI groundout bringing home Branton Jernigan. After Purnell Swett’s three-run second, the Screaming Eagles cut into the lead with a solo homer by Tyndall in the third to make it a 3-2 game.

Branton Jernigan pitched all seven innings and earned the win for Ashley, allowing nine hits and six runs with one walk and seven strikeouts. Keithyn Hunt took the loss, with three hits allowed and five strikeouts in his three-plus innings.

Baker, Keithyn Hunt and Ashton Scott each had two hits for Purnell Swett.

While the result wasn’t what the Rams hoped for, Saturday’s game still marked the first third-round playoff appearance in program history, a grand finish for the team’s nine seniors, especially after not playing their junior season because of its cancellation due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We’ve been talking to the seniors for the last three weeks, ‘what’s your legacy going to be?’ Well, they established the bar,” Lamb said. “They went somewhere no one else had been from Purnell Swett, so the underclassmen have got to step up now, and for them their legacy has got to be a little bit more. So hopefully it’s the start of something we can carry on. I’m proud the way they fought through it; it just wasn’t meant to be tonight. That’s tough — but that’s life.”