Baseball Game Preview: East Columbus Gators vs. Purnell Swett Rams

The East Columbus Gators will challenge the Purnell Swett Rams at 4:00 p.m. on Saturday. Both squads will be entering this one on the heels of a big victory.

Purnell Swett will be up against a hot East Columbus team: the squad just extended their winning streak to three. Everything went the Gators' way against Heide Trask on Wednesday as they made off with an 11-4 victory.

East Columbus let Gauge Simmons and Braylon Waddell run wild. Simmons went 3-for-5 with four RBI, two runs, and one triple, while Waddell scored three runs and stole two bases while going 3-for-5. That's the most runs Waddell has posted since back in March. Kamden Coker was another key player, scoring two runs and stealing a base while going 3-for-4.

East Columbus was getting hits left and right and finished the game having posted a batting average of .378. They easily outclassed their opponents in that department as Heide Trask only posted a batting average of .185.

Meanwhile, Purnell Swett got the win against Hoke County on Wednesday by a conclusive 13-3. The win made it back-to-back victories for the Rams.

Jaythan Locklear looked comfortable as he tossed four innings while giving up just one earned (and one unearned) run off two hits. He has become a key player for Purnell Swett: the team is undefeated when he allows at most one earned run, but 7-9 otherwise.

On the hitting side, Purnell Swett got a massive performance out of Joseden Oxendine, who scored two runs while going 3-for-4. The Rams are 3-1 when Oxendine posts two or more runs, but 7-8 otherwise. Another player making a difference was Grayson Brooks, who scored three runs and stole two bases while going 1-for-1.

East Columbus' win bumped their record up to 10-6. As for Purnell Swett, they now have a winning record of 10-9.