HOPE MILLS — It’s not often a leadoff hitter leads a baseball team in RBIs — their job is most often to get on base to give the middle-of-the-order batters a chance to drive them in.

But after the bottom of the Purnell Swett batting order got on base a lot Tuesday, Cameron Field took advantage of his RBI opportunities — and the two runs he drove in made the difference in the game.

Purnell Swett earned a 5-3 road win over South View in the first round of the North Carolina High School Athletic Association’s 4A state playoffs, overcoming errors and mistakes to scratch out a win. The Rams play in the second round Thursday at Middle Creek in Apex.

“That’s the name of the game this time of year,” Purnell Swett coach Jeff Lamb said. “You’re going to get other teams that are going to scrap to the end. If we make the plays and get the hits when we should — we could have busted it open, but we let them hang around, and when you let good teams hang around some bad things can happen. But we overcame it. We’ll take it and move on to the second round.”

Field, a senior, was 2-for-4 with a walk and his two RBIs.

“He showed up ready to play tonight,” Lamb said. “Like I told the older guys after the game, ‘this is the moment that you guys, you’ve been living for this. So go out, relax and have a good time. You’re playing on house money.’”

Field’s first chance came in the second inning, hitting with men at second and third and two outs. Field singled to left, scoring Mason Locklear for the game’s first run.

“There was a lot of pressure,” Field said. “I fouled off a lot of curveballs. It was in there but I kept fouling it off, and then finally I put it in play.”

In the fourth, after Purnell Swett (10-5) stranded the bases loaded in the third, Keithyn Hunt led off with a single and was sacrificed to second by Zac Strickland. Field singled to plate Hunt for a 2-0 Rams lead.

“I’ve seen a lot of curveballs, but I knew then, if I get the fastball to jump on it,” Field said.

Field was also part of a big defensive play in the seventh inning. With the Rams leading 5-3, the first two South View (4-10) batters reached base in the inning. Zach Hall hit a sharp fly ball to center field which was caught by field, who then doubled off the runner at second.

“I knew if I caught the ball and he was off (the base), I was going to sling it to him,” Field said. “It was good.”

Jonathon Jacobs earned the win, pitching into the seventh with six hits and three unearned runs allowed, with three walks and nine strikeouts.

“From the first inning I didn’t feel good, didn’t have my best stuff, and I just had to keep pushing through it,” Jacobs said. “I made it to the last inning.”

Will Brooks replaced Jacobs after the first two batters reached in the seventh.

“Jon didn’t have his best stuff but he battled all night and kept us in it,” Lamb said. “Then Will came in and got us out of it.”

After the double-play flyout, the game’s final out was also made on the basepaths. On a would-be error on a ground ball, a late throw to third base became an out when the South View baserunner came off the base and was tagged out.

After Purnell Swett led 2-0 on Field’s two RBIs, South View scored an unearned run in the fourth, then both teams scored two unearned runs in the fifth.

In the bottom of the fourth, Dylan Brown looked sure to be out at home plate after a bloop single by Alex Lebron, but the catcher dropped the ball allowing Brown to score the Tigers’ first run and make it a 2-1 game.

Purnell Swett’s two unearned runs in the fifth came on a pair of Tigers errors, scoring Ethan Wilkins, who had reached on a double, and Locklear, who reached on a walk, extending the Rams lead to 4-1.

Jacobs walked two batters in the bottom half, and after a would-be two-RBI double was foul by inches appeared to be out of the inning on a ground ball in the infield, but a throwing error allowed the two baserunners to score and cut the lead to 4-3.

“We had so many blunders in the field, and gave them runs,” Lamb said. “But we survived, we advanced, and I don’t have to think about it anymore, and now I can think about Thursday. It doesn’t have to be pretty, you’re just trying to win and get to the next round.”

Purnell Swett added a seventh-inning insurance run when Strickland scored on a wild pitch.

The Rams left 13 runners on base, with at least one in every inning and at least two in five innings. South View stranded 10.

Wilkins had three hits for the Rams and Kylan Ransom had two. Julio Rivera had two hits for the Tigers.

The Rams now turn their attention to the second-round matchup at Middle Creek, who defeated Millbrook 6-1 in the first round Tuesday.

Lamb said his team may have a unique advantage, often not thought about, as the road team.

“The biggest thing is we don’t have to get the field ready, we don’t have to do any of that,” Lamb said. “We’ve just got to show up and play baseball. They’re the ones that have got to worry about all that stuff. There’s a lot to be said about that.”