The Pike Liberal Arts baseball team has started the season undefeated and are firing on all cylinders early in the 2024 season. The Patriots have impressive wins over 7A Enterprise Wildcats and 5A Headland Rams. Coach Will Austin and the Patriots travel to Ariton to take on the defending 2A State Champions. Ariton has relied on defense early in the 2024 season and has struggled with their offensive production. This will be the first match-up since the Patriots fell to the Purple Cats in the third-round last year. This is a highly anticipated match-up and will also provide both coaches an opportunity to make early season adjustments prior to their playoff run.
Pike would come out of the gates swinging. Seniors John Lott and Houston Gunter hit back-to-back doubles in the top of the first. Lott scored to capture their first run of the game. The cats went down in order in the bottom of the first. Pike Liberal then added two runs in the top half of the second inning. Dawson Bradford reached first on a single and then stole second. Bradford reached third on a wild pitch and Cole Garrott drew a walk. John Lott would strike again with a double over the head of Ariton’s left fielder, making the score 3-0.
Dalton Murphy led off the bottom of the second for Ariton. Murphy singled up the middle for his first of three hits in the game. Myles Tyler reached on a walk and senior Hughes Hammock then singled to right field, but Ariton’s baserunner was thrown out at home for the first out of the inning. Easton Kilpatrick singled down the left field line and collected two RBIs in the process. Ariton would trim the lead to one after two innings of play.
The Cats added two more runs in the bottom of the third inning. Caden Collier led off the inning with a walk and Aven Cook laid down a sacrifice bunt to move Collier to second. Lawson Leger reached first on an infield throwing error. Collier would score and Leger advanced to second on the play. Dalton Murphy hit another single scoring Leger. The Cats took a 4-3 lead and would never trail again.
Ariton dropped a six spot on the Patriots in the fourth inning. The inning would be highlighted with timely hits by Ariton and infield errors by the Patriots. Seniors Jessie Pelham and Ian Senn reached on infield errors and Caden Collier would reach on a walk. Aven Cook then stepped to the plate and hit a double down the line, scoring two. Lawson Leger hit a double to the left center scoring another pair of runs. Leger would later score on a throwing error to third base. Dalton Murphy followed with his third hit of the game and Hughes Hammock followed with an RBI single. Ariton was leading by a score of 10-3 after four innings of play.
The Patriots and Cats would both add a run in the fifth inning. The Patriots would fall for the first time in the 2024 campaign. The final score would be 11-4.
Austin Evans picked up the win on the mound for Ariton. Evans completed six innings of work allowing four earned runs.