HOPE MILLS — All season long, Purnell Swett baseball coach Jeff Lamb has told his team their goal would be to peak the third week of June when the state playoffs begin.

The Rams will have a chance to do just that when they travel to South View for a first-round matchup Tuesday at 7 p.m.

“We’re just pretty excited and hopefully we can play awhile, that’s our goal,” Lamb said. “I’ve been preaching since we started that this is our week, this is the week we want to play our best baseball. So we’ll see if we’ve got our best baseball still in us.”

The Rams (9-5) enter the playoffs on an at-large berth into the 4A field after finishing third in the Sandhills Athletic Conference.

Purnell Swett lost 9-4 to Lumberton on Saturday after the Pirates’ eight-run seventh inning, but the Rams are moving past the disappointment of that loss as they prepare to start fresh in the postseason.

“I told them, ‘everything up to this point is history; this is a new season. You’ve done the work to get yourself here,’” Lamb said. “There’s only 16 teams in the East (Regional), 16 in the West, and there’s 42 teams sitting at the house. Our goal is to be one of the 16 left after (Tuesday). Try to stay loose, have fun and we’re playing on house money.”

South View (4-9) finished fourth in the Patriot Conference, a split 3A/4A conference, but earned a high playoff seed as the league’s highest-finishing 4A team.

“One thing about it, you can throw the records out, and we’re just trying to be better than the other team,” Lamb said. “It’s a good draw for us; I think if we go out and just play the game the way we’re capable of playing, I think we can have some positive results.”

Leading hitters for the Tigers include junior Julio Rivera-Camacho (.390 batting average, 12 runs) and senior Zach Hall (.270 batting average, nine RBIs). Seniors Josh George (4-2, 1.22 ERA, 27 strikeouts) and Alex Lebron (0-4, 3.58 ERA, 25 strikeouts) lead the pitching staff.

The Rams’ Jonathon Jacobs (3-2, 1.89 ERA, 61 strikeouts) is likely to start; Lamb pitched Jacobs in the Tuesday game last week so he would be available on full rest for the playoff opener.

Behind Jacobs, the Rams will be looking to play their best game offensively — something Lamb feels they haven’t done in recent games.

“If we can get going offensively and do what we’re capable of doing, I think everything will take care of itself,” Lamb said. “Because then it gives us some leeway defensively — but we’ve got to push some runs across the plate. We’ve got to minimize the strikeouts and put the ball in play.

“What’s been happening lately is we’re getting baserunners — there’s been a couple games we’ve had the bases loaded, no outs, and then we’re not focusing at the plate and executing. We really worked on (Monday) just executing in those situations and having confidence when you go step in the box, just working on our mental approach.”

The proximity of South View makes for a short trip for the Rams, who won’t have to do anything different Tuesday leading up to the game than what they’ve done for road games in the SAC all season.

“We can stick to our routine, what we’ve been doing,” Lamb said. “I think that’s going to help. But still, you get there and you’ve just got to make the plays and the pitchers have got to throw strikes. It’s baseball, anything can happen. The name of the game is survive and advance this time of year.”