Purcell got off to a great start in last week’s District Tournament clobbering Madill, 19-5 getting warmed up for a battle with Sulphur.

In their first game, both teams were knotted at 11 each heading into the bottom of the seventh with the top of Purcell’s lineup coming to the plate.

“We knew that Sulphur was going to be tough and we made sure to make it look that way the first game,” head coach Sarah Jones said.

The game went back and forth.

“We committed too many errors but we stayed in with timely at-bats,” Jones said.

In the bottom of the seventh KK Vazquez singled and made her way to second on a bobble.

After Ella Resendiz was intentionally walked, Hannah Whitaker stepped up with a line shot off the wall to score Vazquez for the 12-11 victory.

In the second game with Sulphur Purcell came out ready to play and were up 7-zip in the second inning eventually winning 8-1 for the championship.

“It was a fun day last Thursday,” Jones said looking back. “We started off strong with Madill winning 19-5. We hit up and down the lineup and were able to get 4-5 at-bats in. Everyone found ways to get on base and made great defensive plays. Hannah pitched a great game.

“These 10 girls come out and compete no matter what. We may have had 11 errors on the day but we had eight double plays, two of them came from catching fly balls and throwing a base runner out at second,” the coach said.

One of the double plays was from Vazquez and one came from Payci Constant.

“Hannah did an amazing job on the mound, 21 innings, 101 batters faced and only seven walks.”

Resendiz was intentinally walked seven times throughout the day but when she got a chance she made the most of it with two home runs.

KK Vazquez led the day going 7-11 at the plate with three triples.

Whitaker stepped up all day and had nine RBI’s.

“The bottom of our lineup stepped up big time, with big at-bats either by walking, making them work for it, or hitting it exactly where we needed it to score a run,” Jones said.

“It was a total team effort,” she said.

The title was Purcell’s first District Championship in slow-pitch since 2015.

The Dragons took an 11-12 record into the Regional Tournament at Cache Wednesday.

They opened with Cache at 11 a.m. Also in the tournament were Bethel and Bristow.

Two teams will advance to State.