ST. PAULS — The combination of speed and power can be lethal on the softball diamond.

Angel Purcell showcased both Friday night.

The St. Pauls third baseman hit two inside-the-park home runs and one more out of the park, propelling the Bulldogs in a 8-1 win over Fairmont.

“She’s a great player, first off, and then she does whatever you ask her to do, up there at the plate and then on the field,” St. Pauls coach Phillip Tyler said. “Even at practice, she’s a true leader at practice. If the girls are down, she says I need the energy up. She’s a very impactful player. I think any team would want her, I’m pretty sure.”

St. Pauls swept the season series with Fairmont after a 13-3 win on Tuesday.

Purcell’s first home run gave St. Pauls (10-4, 3-0 Southeastern) a 2-0 lead in the first inning, an inside-the-park four-bagger to right-center field. Purcell drove home Roni Hightower, then came around to score herself before Fairmont could get the ball in.

“Just getting the runs up for my team, helping them out and stuff, keep them hyped and battling, confidence,” Purcell said.

The second Purcell home run came in a far different way — a moonshot blast to straightaway center which gave the Bulldogs a 3-1 lead in the fifth innings.

“No-doubter,” Purcell said. “I knew that one was gone when it came off the bat. It had a good pop to it, good sound; I loved it.”

Purcell’s last homer came much like the first — a fifth-inning gapper to right-center field that rolled all the way to the wall as she sprinted around the bases, reaching the plate ahead of a throw home.

“We were a little slow offensively but she was the one that kicked it in … with the home runs,” Tyler said.

After Purcell’s third homer gave St. Pauls a 4-1 lead, the Bulldogs added two more in the sixth with RBI hits by Madison Locklear and Aniyah Locklear, bringing home Yomaris Vasquez and Madison Locklear, for a 6-1 lead. The Bulldogs scored twice more in the sixth, on a sacrifice bunt from Hightower to plate Jerzey Jacobs and an RBI single by Madison Locklear that drove in Hailey Ray.

As has been often been the case all season, Yomaris Vasquez’ pitching complemented the Bulldogs’ offense. Despite traffic on the basepaths for much of the night, Vasquez held Fairmont to one run on seven hits with six strikeouts and three walks.

“I like for them to have that (traffic on the bases), because they need to face that adversity and then be able to persevere through it,” Tyler said. “That way, when we get later in the season and it gets to crunch time and we get to a two- or three-run ballgame, you’ve got to persevere and get through that.”

Fairmont (2-10, 0-4 Southeastern) scored in the third inning on a sacrifice fly by Layla Hunt to plate Kensley Newberry, who reached on a triple. But the Golden Tornadoes stranded two runners in four separate innings against Vasquez.

“We all know that’s the sign of a younger team,” Fairmont coach Donnie Carter said. “There’s times you’ve got to get a hit; when you’ve runners in scoring position you’ve got to hit, and right now we just don’t. … I was telling them, just keep your head up, keep playing hard; we’re going to shake the monkey off our back and when we do we’ll be fine.”

All nine St. Pauls starters got at least one hit; Purcell had three with her 12-total-base night and had four RBIs and Madison Locklear had two hits and two RBIs.

Layla Hunt had three hits and an RBI for Fairmont, with Kensley Newberry, Kimberleigh Stevens, Shonesty Hunt and Skyler McNeill also recording hits for the Golden Tornadoes.

St. Pauls is 3-0 in the Southeastern entering league games next Tuesday and Friday against West Bladen, with a nonconference tilt at New Hanover set for Wednesday.

“It’s been a long time since we’ve been 3-0 (in conference),” Tyler said. “We’ve just got to continue to do the little things that we’ve been doing, playing sound defense and putting the ball in play and then capitalizing off of people’s mistakes, that’s the main thing.”

Fairmont travels to Lumberton for a nonconference matinee Saturday before a three-game week next week, starting with Tuesday’s game at Red Springs.

“Lumberton’s always a good team to play because they’re good, because that helps us,” Carter said. “Our schedule has been that caliber of teams; our nonconference schedule has been tough, but it was done intentionally. Iron sharpens iron, from what I was told; you’ve got to play good teams to get better.”