With the district victory over Dickson Monday, 5-4, Purcell ran its fast-pitch softball record to 10-1. They are 4-0 in district play.

“It was a rough one but we made it happen,” head coach Sarah Jones said.

Jones said she anticipates Kailynn Helton, Lili Del Toro and Rosie Smith pitching quite a bit this week.

“They are going to give us a lot of innings this week to give Ella Resendiz and Hannah Whitaker a breather. Kailynn and Lili did their job last night. “We didn’t give them 100 percent backup like we should. Hannah came in and finished the game for us.”

Resendiz and Kenna Esparza both went 2-3. The Dragons also got hits from KK Vazquez, Mac McKay and Payci Constant.

“Brynley (Jennings) stepped up big for us Monday night with an RBI triple in the bottom of the sixth to make it 5-4 and we held them off for the win,” Jones said.

“Aside from the heat, we worked through a lot of adversity last week from keeping everyone healthy, different game plans to give Ella and Hannah a little break from pitching,” Jones said. “Luckily we have the staff to do that and are able to give them some innings that is if we do our job on defense and at the plate.”

“Byng was a good district win,” Jones said. “We hit up and down our line up, played awesome defense and Hannah Whitaker got the win in the circle.

“The first Annual Heart of Oklahoma Tournament was a huge success with a lot of tough competition. You could potentially have seen a few Super Regional or State Tournament matchups in 4A,” Jones said.

Purcell came up short in the tournament opener, falling to Blanchard 2-0.

“We didn't make our adjustment at the plate. We knew how she was going to pitch us and we couldn't find a way to make things happen.”

Blanchard strung a couple hits together to get their runs across and Purcell didn't.

Vazquez, Jennings and Constant were Purcell’s lone three hits in the game.

“We are excited to see them later on in the season,” Jones said.

In the second game of the tournament the Dragons pounded out 12 hits and knocked off Norman, 10-4.

“We tried a new game plan and it didn't work out for us the first few innings but our bats started working and we were able to make some things happen,” the coach said.

Savanna Edwards went 3-3, McKay 2-3 and Whitaker were both 2-3. Constant went 2-2 with Esparza, Resendiz and Jennings had hits as well.

Helton started the game with Resendiz coming in in relief. She fanned nine straight batters to end the game.

Next up was the Tuttle Tigers, a 4-3 Purcell victory.

“It was a great matchup,” Jones confirmed. “They have beaten some really good teams and we knew it was going to be a dogfight. The heat started to take over a little this game.”

Resendi went 2-3 at the plate and pitched a solid 5.2 innings. Whitaker mopped up in the circle.

Whitaker, Edwards, Constant and Jennings all had hits in the game.

Edwards started the Dragon rally in the bottom of the sixth. Jennings followed and Mckay hit the game-winner, hitting an opposite field line drive to win the game.

The Dragons next opponent was Alva. Purcell posted a 7-2 win.

“We were glad that Alva decided to join the HOOT. They needed to see some teams from this side of the state and the same for us. They are normally sent this way for playoffs. We strung our hits together nicely in this game and made them work,” Jones said.

McKay went 3-3 and with three RBIs. Resendiz went 2-3 Edwards going 2-2. and Hadleigh Harp, Vazquez and Jennings all had hits.

Hannah pitched a really well game in the circle,” the coach said.

Purcell scored a run in the first inning against Cache and that proved to be the final at 1-0.

“We wanted to stear clear of district matchups like Tuttle and Cache, Purcell and Plainview, and Bethel and Washington,” Jones said. “Cache is a really good squad that we could possibly see later on in the season.”

Purcell out-hit Cache 9-4.

“But we left too many runners on base,” the coach lamented.

She praised the pitching of Resendiz, who struck out nine.

Both Whitaker and Resendiz went 2-3 with Vazquez, McKay, Esparza, Harp and Constant all having hits.

“We got the job done though with having solid defense,” Jones said.

The way the winners went down was an overall record, head-to-head, runs allowed, then runs scored against.  Tuttle, Blanchard and Purcell all had the same record 4-1.

“However, we all beat each other. We beat Tuttle. Tuttle beat Blanchard and Blanchard beat us. It then went to runs allowed. Both Tutle and Blanchard had less runs allowed than we did. Therefore, it went to their head-to-head. Tuttle beat Blanchard. So Tuttle was first, Blanchard second and us third,” the coach explained.

Purcell was to play at Ada Tuesday for a district game. Purcell will play at Dibble on Thursday with junior high starting at 6 and varsity at 7:15 p.m. due to the heat.