Sarah Purvis had simple goals as a college softball pitcher: be among the best and help make Georgia Southern University one of the nation’s best.
With two Southern Conference Pitcher of the Year awards, the former Northside High Eagle is well on her expected track. With one more season to go, Purvis has more collegiate milestones to obtain: getting to and winning a super regional in order to qualify for the Women’s College World Series.
“I’ve always wanted to be the best,” said Purvis as she visited the Warner Robins American Little League Flint Energies Complex over the holiday weekend. “I always wanted to be the one to set records. I’ve actually done it, and I just want to keep doing it … set more records and beat my own records.”
Going back to 2012, Purvis set Georgia Southern school records with 256 strikeouts, 220 1/3 innings pitched and 23 wins. No Eagle pitcher had ever eclipsed 20 wins before. She also had six shutouts, and that paved the way to her first Pitcher of the Year award from the Southern Conference.
The 2013 season ended in the Gainesville Regional at the University of Florida. The Eagles were Southern Conference champions, and with eight wins and a 1.30 earned run average in league play, Purvis was once again voted Pitcher of the Year.
In that regional, Purvis tossed her second career perfect game to beat Hampton 3-0. That gave her a string of 25 straight innings without allowing an earned run. She extended that to 29 1/3 innings with her relief outing in the season-ending loss to South Florida.
In all, Purvis won 18 games, struck out 207 and had a 1.83 earned run average.
“Every year we’ve come closer and gone further,” she said. “We just have to work harder to move up.
“My freshman year, I developed a back-door curve ball. That’s been the main pitch I’ve thrown. That’s helped my career out a lot. A regular curve ball goes outside, that’s everybody’s curve. This one’s located inside. It looks different.”
As far as velocity goes, Purvis has topped the radar guns at 63 mph. She said that may be only a little bit faster from her days at Northside, but it’s the spin and the movement that’s improved.
“Alabama, that was a tough game,” said Purvis about a standout opponent. The Eagles went nine innings with the defending national champions at a tournament hosted by Florida Gulf Coast in Ft. Myers. Purvis pitched a shutout for eight innings before the Tide finally won 2-1.
Her favorite game is her first perfect game, and that came against Southern Illinois. It also happened to be at the same location as the Alabama contest, but the day before when Georgia Southern won 1-0.
Purvis hasn’t had to do it by herself in the circle. One of her fellow pitchers is a former high school teammate, Brooke Red. She also shared the joys of championship softball in college with an old prep rival, Houston County High’s Kourtny Thomas.
“It’s awesome,” said Purvis. “Especially that game we won the championship in. Kourtny hitting that home run and I’m pitching in the circle. And the game before Brooke pitched a great 11-inning game. It’s awesome that all of us get to play and have these accomplishments.”
Thomas’ home run was a walk-off blast in the 11th inning against North Carolina-Greensboro. She led the Eagles in long balls with 12.
Red pitched all 11 innings of a 3-2 win over College of Charleston. It would give her nine wins on the season.
“I think she’s getting more confident,” said Purvis. “She wants the ball more.”
Purvis and Thomas will be seniors in 2014 while Red will get one more season.
“I really want to win that regional,” said Purvis. “I said in my freshman year I wanted to go to the World Series.”
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