LUMBERTON — For the first five innings, Purnell Swett and Heide Trask nipped and tucked through Monday’s Robeson County Slugfest baseball semifinal.

In the sixth, the Titans crumbled and the Rams finally took off, scoring six runs to blow it open in a 10-4 win.

“Once their pitcher got up there and reached his total, the further we got up, the more pitches he threw, we kind of started walking people and lost his control,” Purnell Swett coach Jeff Lamb said. “We’ll take it however we can get it. A win’s a win; we’re just trying to survive and advance, they’re playing on house money, and we get everybody’s best.”

Purnell Swett (8-4) will face North Brunswick in the tournament championship game at 7 p.m. Tuesday as the Rams seek their first Slugfest title since 2019. Heide Trask (2-7) will face Hoke County in the third-place game at 4 p.m.

The Rams’ six-run sixth came with just one hit, as Heide Trask committed two errors and four Rams reached on walks. The Titans used three pitchers to get through the frame.

“We came back in, had a couple innings that we struggled, but we came back in, we found what was wrong, and then we had the bats again,” Purnell Swett’s Jacey Jacobs said.

Ethan Locklear was hit by a pitch and stole second, then scored the go-ahead run when Jacob Chavis reached on an error; Chavis later scored on a wild pitch. Bladdon Hammonds, Joseden Oxendine, Easton Oxendine and Samuel Brewington each walked, with the last one scoring Hammonds.

Joseden Oxendine scored on an error; Jacey Jacobs then singled — the Rams’ only hit of the inning — to plate Easton Oxendine and Samuel Brewington.

“We actually showed a little bit of discipline, we weren’t up there hacking,” Lamb said. “We’re beginning to learn, we’re beginning to understand, OK, what have we got to do here.”

“Since the whole entire game, they were throwing curveballs, I was sitting curveball,” Jacobs said. “But I got that one fastball that was meat, and I just went through it to left field.”

Waydan McMillan scored a first-inning Rams run on a wild pitch; Heide Trask scored three unearned runs in the second for a 3-1 lead, with runs coming home on an error, a Brantley Lunsford RBI walk and a Matix Wiler sacrifice fly.

Purnell Swett scored twice in the fourth, with Easton Oxendine crossing the plate on a wild pitch and Jacobs scoring on an error, to tie the game at 3-3. Heide Trask scored an unearned run in the bottom half on a Cooper Uhland RBI single, retaking the lead 4-3.

The Rams tied the game again at 4-4 in the fifth after an Easton Oxendine sacrifice fly.

“We responded, we battled,” Lamb said. “Our biggest thing is, we get pretty emotional, and I told them, emotional people make mistakes. There’s a certain place we’ve got to find, and we found it and it kind of leveled out and we did what we had to do.”

Chandon Sanderson allowed no earned runs for the Rams on five hits, with five walks and five strikeouts over five innings, earning the win.

“I told (catcher Jacey Jacobs) when we got here it was just me and him all night, just throwing strikes all night,” Sanderson said. “Just kept pounding the zone and my defense worked for me.”

Wiler pitched into the sixth for the Titans and took the loss, striking out eight.

Joseden Oxendine had two hits for the Rams; Uhland had three hits for the Titans.

Purnell Swett reached the Slugfest championship game in seven straight tournaments, from 2013-19, winning it in 2014, 2016 and 2019 — but hasn’t been in the final since. The last championship came against North Brunswick, the same program they’ll face for the title on Tuesday; the teams also met in the first round of last year’s tournament, with Purnell Swett winning 9-4.

“If we keep the momentum going, we think we should be all right,” Sanderson said. “Hit the ball, put the bat on the ball, we’ll be alright. … Keep the bats moving. Our goal has been to go get it.”

North Brunswick rallies late to reach final

The North Brunswick baseball team scored four runs in the sixth to come from behind and top Hoke County 6-3 in Monday’s Robeson County Slugfest semifinal.

North Brunswick (9-3) advances to face Purnell Swett in Tuesday’s championship at 7 p.m. Hoke County (2-13) will take on Heide Trask in the third-place game.

Cody Callahan gave the Scorpions the lead with an RBI single as part of the four-run sixth.

North Brunswick scored two runs in the first; Hoke County scored one in the fifth and two in the sixth to take a 3-2 lead.

Callahan had three hits, a run and an RBI for North Brunwick; Aydean White and Garrett Gore also had one hit, one run and one RBI each.

Reynell Capellan Reyes had two hits and one RBI and Eric Carter had one hit and two RBIs for the Bucks.