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The Pike Liberal Arts Patriots rode into unbeaten Ariton Monday night.  When the dust settled, Pike rode out of town with their first defeat of the season losing to the Purple Cats 11-4.

 

Each team had nine hits apiece, but it was a combination of the Patriots leaving runners on base and committing six errors on the night that proved to be the difference.  Of the eleven Ariton runs, two were earned.  On the flip side, Ariton didn’t leave runners on base and committed just one error.

 

The Purple Cat’s Austin Evans, who was the winning pitcher in last year’s deciding quarterfinal playoff game vs Pike, got the win for Ariton.  Evans pitched six innings giving up 4 earned runs on nine hits. Dalton Murphy went 3 for 3 on the night with an RBI.  Hayes Hammock went 2 for 4 with an RBI.  Caden Collier, Aven Cook, Lawson Leger and Easton Kilpatrick each had one hit.

 

On the Patriots side John Lott and Luke Barron each went 2 for 4 with Lott adding two RBI. Dawson Bradford went 2 for 3 with an RBI.  Houston Gunter, Kade Brookins and Cole Garrott each had a hit.

 

Lott started the game on the mound for Pike with Bradford and Peyton Elliot working in relief roles.