Although knowing nothing about their foes, the Pike Liberal Arts Patriots took the field Friday ready to face the Morgan Academy Senators, but after playing just shy of four full innings the game was called due to rain.

In four short innings, the Patriots were able to make quick work of the Senators getting a 4-2 lead over the Selma team.

Patriot head coach Allen Ponder said the team had been able to play well during the short outing they had Friday despite knowing little about the team.

“I was very happy with how we played in the first four innings,” Ponder said. Pitching wise, we need to do a better job of filling up the zone. We threw way too many pitches in the first four innings, so that’s something we’ve got to do a better job of when we resume. Swinging the bats, we can’t really say a whole lot about that because we haven’t been able to get them out much this week with all the rain. I wasn’t disappointed with the way we swung the bats. We got some bunts down and manufactured a couple of runs.”

Senior Rush Hixon started on the mound for the Pats, but Ponder said he would likely start someone else on the mound when facing the Senators later today.

“It might be one of those situations where we can start someone else, and when we get to another game, we might have an opportunity to close him,” Ponder said. “His pitch count wasn’t very high, but at the same time you don’t want to send someone out there to start a game after they did start and throw a significant amount of pitches. We might have him in relief in the next couple of games.”

And, although the Patriots were beating the Senators with the Pats having the bases loaded and no outs, Ponder said he wants his team to be able to come out with the same intensity and enthusiasm they were showing Friday.

“We can’t come up empty with bases loaded and no body out,” Ponder said. That’s our main focus, coming out and starting strong. We don’t want to come out with a relaxed frame of mine. We want to come out with the same intensity we left with, because we realize we have a great opportunity to score a lot of runs and have a chance to extend that lead a little bit.”

The Patriots are slated to play at Troy University today based on the condition of the Pats’ field Friday.

“We’re doing a good job so far,” Ponder said. We’ll resume with the same situation in the bottom of the fourth, bases loaded, with no body out. Morgan is a very scrappy group of kids. They do a very good job up at bat, and they battle you. They foul pitches off. They don’t strike out a lot. It’s going to be a battle for us, but that’s good for us.”