PEARL — Purvis forces a decisive Game 3.

Behind the pitching of Mississippi State signee JoJo Parker the Tornadoes held on to beat West Lauderdale 3-2 to even the series in Game 2 of the MHSAA Class 4A Baseball State Championship series on Thursday afternoon.

The decisive Game 3 will be Friday morning at 10 a.m.

“Seems like it’s a traditional one-run game with us and West Lauderdale. JoJo and Jacob led us off with two big hits. It was like it was the other day it’s just we finally got a hit with runners on base,” said Purvis coach Tony Farlow. “That’s what we feed off of is them two getting it started for us and other guys in the line up chipping in, but West Lauderdale pitched good as well.”

West Lauderdale jumped out to a 2-0 lead in the top of the first inning as Xavier Thompson delivered an RBI triple to right and later scored on a groundout.

Drew Swan had an RBI single to left for Purvis to cut the West Lauderdale lead to 2-1 in the third.

The Tornadoes scored two runs in the fifth as JoJo Parker led the inning off with a double and his brother, Jacob Parker, followed with an RBI double to tie the game at 2-2 and then later scored on a throwing error to give Purvis (28-7) the 3-2 lead.

“I think I’m the energy guy in our dugout. I love the pressure being on me it just fuels me, and I knew we had to get some energy going to score runs and move to a Game 3,” JoJo Parker said. “Threw a lot of fastballs today so that was my go-to pitch. Had to refocus after the first inning and just had to throw strikes.”

Parker pitched a complete game scattering four hits, two runs, a walk, and had 10 strikeouts to improve to 9-2 on the mound.

JoJo pitched fabulous and he’s pitched good his last three outings and we felt like if we needed him to keep our season alive that’s why we pitched him today,” Farlow said. “He gave us a chance for tomorrow and we’re excited. Two one run games between two really good teams, so Game 3 tomorrow will be exciting.”

Carter Horton (10-1) took the loss on the mound for West Lauderdale (29-6).

“Just a great high school game with a great opponent and excited about the opportunity for Game 3 tomorrow,” said West Lauderdale coach Jason Smith. “Had some big hits early and scored a couple runs, but we didn’t get the big hit when we needed it but we pitched well.”