PEMBROKE — Basically playing for their playoff lives, it was only fitting that the Purnell Swett baseball team was down to its last strike on Tuesday night with a spot in the Robeson County Slugfest championship game on the line.
After striking out twice before in the game against St. Pauls, catcher Jalyn McIntyre hit a two-out chopper up the middle that he was able to leg out for an infield single, driving in Cameron Fields to score the winning run in the bottom of the seventh inning in the Rams’ 9-8 win at home.
“If I didn’t swing at that pitch, I knew nothing good was coming out of it,” McIntyre said. “I was just thinking see baseball and hit baseball. I knew we had the winning run on base, I put those two strikeouts and went up to hit the baseball.”
The win moves the Rams into the title game of the Slugfest to take on North Brunswick at 7 p.m. St. Pauls will take on Lumberton in the third-place game at 4 p.m.
Over the final three innings, both teams traded shots, before sharing an 8-8 tie going into the seventh inning. That’s when Purnell Swett reliever Zack Carter locked in. He finished with four strikeouts in 1 2/3 innings.
“I told (McIntyre) in the dugout that when we come back out I’m going to hit the mitt,” Carter said. “Where ever you place it, I’ll hit it.”
Carter drove in two runs and was 4-for-4 at the plate, including a homer in the sixth inning as the Rams scored two runs to retaliate from two runs from St. Pauls earlier in the frame.
“It was the Swett Way. We fought and never gave up,” Carter said. “That’s the definition of it.”
Carter’s homer came an inning after Troy McGirt led off the bottom of the fifth with a solo shot to left center field to tie the game at 6-all.
Purnell Swett now has won 10 of its last 11 games, and that kind of environment has helped the team thrive in late-game situations.
“They never quit, man. Like I said at the Slugfest luncheon, you can throw records out and people have given us their best shots,” Purnell Swett coach Jeff Lamb said.”They performed. We had some big hits in big moments, we had some home runs. We just battled.”
Leading St. Pauls at the plate were brothers Caleb Henderson and Josh Henderson with two hits and two RBIs each. Josh drove a pair of runs home in the top of the fifth inning to put the Bulldogs ahead a run and Caleb drove in a pair with a double down the right-field line in the top of the sixth.
“Those guys have been doing that all year. Every game it seems like those guys are leading us off or starting us up,” St. Pauls coach Matt Hunt said. “Josh Henderson has really stepped up this week and has been putting the ball in play for us.”
With the offense clicking, the only thing holding the Bulldogs back from claiming the win was the lack of pitching depth the Rams showcased by throwing three pitchers in the win.
“If we had that one pitcher like they did putting Zack on the mound. We just don’t have that kind of depth when it comes to pitching,” Hunt said.
