Hanging in

Published 11:51 pm Tuesday, April 21, 2009

CHATSWORTH — Murray County’s postseason hopes are hanging by the thinnest of threads, but the Indians lightened the load of pressure those fibers are holding just a little bit on Tuesday.

Colton Roberts and Blake Hammontree’s first home runs of the season highlighted a strong showing by the bottom half of Murray County’s lineup, Chandler Puryear pitched well enough to survive his own control struggles and the Indians played error-free defense at home to beat rival Northwest Whitfield, 7-4, in Region 7-4A north sub-region action.

For the Indians (7-10, 2-7) to finish among the top three teams in the sub-region and have a chance to play for a spot in the Class 4A state playoffs, it will take them winning three games over the next three days as well as some help from the rest of the sub-region.

But as they left the ballpark on senior night, the possibility of postseason baseball was still out there.

That was good enough for Indians coach Jason Lanham.

“There’s a small, small glimmer at the end of that tunnel, but we can still see light,” Lanham said. “Basically everybody we beat this week, we help ourselves. We’ve told our kids we’re in a four-game single-elimination tournament, because if we lose one, we have no shot.”

The Bruins (12-9, 5-5) began the day sitting much higher in the sub-region standings than last-place Murray County, but they’ve got their own work to do in the hunt for a playoff berth after losing four of their past six games. Northwest hosts Dalton today and Sequoyah on Friday with the margin for error growing ever slimmer.

But with the mental boost provided by a late-but-short rally and the potential shown in flashes this season, the Bruins will approach the next few days as optimistically as anyone in the fight for a playoff spot.

“I’ve never questioned our desire to win and our heart and ability to battle back,” Bruins coach Todd Middleton said. “It’s just, like I said, we need to keep that intensity for seven innings.”

Northwest took a 1-0 lead in the first inning on an RBI single from Diego Hernandez, who finished the day 3-for-4 with three RBIs, but the Indians went ahead with a four-run second highlighted Roberts’ three-run homer to center field. They added the other run when Hammontree came home on a throw to catch Tyler Ellis stealing second base for the inning’s second out.

Roberts hit the first pitch he saw from Bruins starter Jordan Darnell into a swirling wind to score Taylor Patterson and Houston Headrick, who had reached on singles.

“I didn’t think it was going to carry,” Roberts said. “I thought it was just going to be a line drive off the wall or something.”

Murray County stretched its lead in the fourth on Hammontree’s two-run homer and an RBI single by Puryear, who went 2-for-3 with a walk, but the Bruins — who left the bases loaded in the sixth — made things interesting with their three-run seventh.

With Puryear out after six innings, Ryan Greeson was tagged for the runs on Zane Gordon’s RBI single and a two-run hit by Hernandez, and he left after recording just one out. Taylor Patterson gave up a leadoff double to Cody Jones, but exited without any further damage on a lineout and flyout to end the game.

Middleton complimented Puryear’s work on the mound, but the senior left-hander had his share of rough spots against the Bruins, who left at least one runner on base every inning except the third. Still, despite issuing six walks, hitting a batter and going deep in the count to several other hitters, Puryear and his defense found a way out of every jam after the first inning.

“You’ve just got to have a tough mental mindset and know that you can throw strikes,” said Puryear, who scattered five hits and the same number of strikeouts on his way to the win.

“You’re the one on the mound, the one controlling the game, so you’ve got to have a good mound presence and have confidence you can get them out.”

Darnell pitched a complete game and allowed six earned runs on nine hits while walking two, hitting a batter and striking out seven. At the plate, he was 3-for-3 with a walk, three stolen bases and two runs, while Chase Plott doubled and walked and Hunter Key walked twice.

Darnell hopes the seventh was a sign of the Bruins’ bats waking up.

“We just need to take that into tomorrow with the big game against Dalton,” he said.

Headrick and Ellis each had two hits for Murray County.