Sports Writer

A Pike County rally was held in check by Ariton pitcher Chris Logan, which allowed the Purple Cats to escape with a 9-6 win Friday night in Brundidge.

The Bulldogs went to bat in the bottom of the seventh with a chance to tie or take the lead. But PCH went 0-3 at the plate, with Logan registering two strike outs on PCH’s Elijah Daniels and Jonathan Tillery.

Ariton jumped on Pike County in the top of the first when Brett Laney launched a three-run homer over the left field fence. The Bulldogs, meanwhile, were unable to get anything going at bat in the first two innings and in the top of the third some costly Bulldog error’s combined with solid hitting by Ariton, allowed the Purple Cats to build a 7-0 lead.

"We came in and started off real slow," PCH head coach Fred Holland said. "And we helped them out a lot with those errors we had."

A Sam Diggs single in the third brought Anthony Kilpatrick home for the Bulldogs first run of the game. PCH’s Brian Kilpatrick opened on the mound to start the fourth inning, with starting pitcher Michael Lowery taking Kilpatrick’s place at catcher. Pike County got three quick outs, with Kilpatrick striking out one batter.

"I think the pitching change helped us really well," Holland said. " Brian came in and he was throwing real good. He kept them off balance and that allowed us to get back in the game."

Then the fourth inning belonged to Pike County.

Lowery knocked a two run shot into left field to bring Elijah Daniels home. Jonathan Tillery hit a double and then Diggs followed him with a RBI triple. A double into centerfield by Robby Price sent Diggs home and PCH was down two, 7-5.

After being walked in the fifth inning, Brian Kilpatrick over ran second base after a single by Daniels and was trapped on what was a sure cutoff play. But the Ariton out fielder overthrew the second baseman and the ball rolled into foul territory, allowing Kilpatrick to score, with no outs in the inning. But Logan delivered for Ariton by striking out the next three PCH batters.

Laney got another homer in the sixth and dropped ball in the outfield sent another Ariton runner home to increase their lead to 9-6. After that Logan went to work on the mound to finish the Bulldogs.

"I think we played well tonight," Holland said. "But the error’s we had late in the game stopped our momentum. We hit the ball extremely well and we got good pitching. We just have to continue to work on the defensive aspect of our game."