First Posted: 3/28/2012

PEMBROKE — When Purnell Swett’s Matt Godwin stepped to the plate in the bottom of the seventh inning, with two outs and two runners on in a 5-5 ballgame with Hoke County, he was nothing but confident.
Godwin showed why.
The Swett senior roped a line drive inches inside the left-field foul line, driving in pinch runner Travion Pearson with a walkoff RBI single to give Swett a 6-5 Southeastern Conference win over Hoke on Tuesday night in Pembroke.
“Even before that at-bat, I knew I was going to win the ballgame for the team,” Godwin said. He entered the contest with a team-leading .412 batting average. “It felt great. As soon as it came off the bat I knew it was fair and it was a win.”
As of late, nothing had been falling in line for the Rams (4-5, 1-3), who were winless in the SEC and on a five-game losing skid before facing the Bucks (3-5, 0-4).
Tuesday night wasn’s just a conference game, it was nearly a must-win for Swett.
“It wasn’t pretty, but Matt (Godwin) comes in and fortunately he hits one about six inches inside that left-field foul line and we escaped … it was a good win,” Swett head coach Kelly Chavis said. He’s been quick to credit his squad for their confidence throughout the skid. “They’re a confident group. We lost five baseball games and for a lot of teams they probably would’ve just folded.”
Despite allowing a 4-3 lead to slip away in the top of the seventh, the Rams, however, kept upright.
With a chance to shut the door on Hoke, Swett reliever Rickey Ivey couldn’t find comfort on the mound. He walked the first two Bucks batters and later hit a third. Hoke took advantage of Ivey’s rattled outing, scoring a pair of runs on throwing errors to re-grab the lead at 5-4. The Bucks held a 3-0 lead before the Rams plated two in the third, highlighted by an RBI triple from Austin Locklear, who finished 3-for-3.
“Rickey came in and didn’t throw strikes right away. I thought we would let it slip away their in the seventh,” Chavis said.
But Ivey didn’t let the damage get any worse and struck out Hoke’s Alex Snodgrass to put the game in the Swett batters’ hands. The Rams finished with nine hits off of the Bucks’ Caleb Jacobs and David Avina.
In the bottom of the seventh, Locklear singled and later scored on an over-throw at third to knot it at 5-5. After a single from Drew Armstrong, who Pearson pinch-ran for, and Dakota Chavis drew a walk, Swett needed just one hit to get back in the win column.
Godwin took it from there.
“It wasn’t really a clean game, but we never give up as a team and we fought through and came out with the win,” Godwin said. “Our confidence wasn’t really down. We knew we had to battle for this win. I feel like we really needed it.”
Swett was coming off a 12-11 nine-inning loss to Pinecrest last Friday.
“It’s something we feel like we could’ve had by now,” Chavis said. “So it feels good to finally get this win under out belt, our first conference win.”
Reach Sports editor Kaleb Roedel at 910-272-6111 or at [email protected]