By STEVEN G. WATSON

Sports Editor

The Pike County Bulldogs are on another one of their marathon weeks playing four games in as many days, but assured themselves of at least a split of the four contests Wednesday night with a 12-6 win over Highland Home.

After allowing one run to score in the top of the first, the PCHS defense buckled down behind the pitching of Brian Kilpatrick and held the Squadron scoreless through the next four innings.

Meanwhile, the Bulldog offense picked up right where they left off Tuesday night in Greenville scoring multiple runs in the first, third, and fourth innings. Before Highland Home could get comfortable Pike County held an 8-1 lead.

"I think our offense right now is really clicking," PCHS head coach Fred Holland said. "We work on that a lot because it means a lot to me for them to hit the ball."

The Bulldogs did falter, however, in the top of the sixth, giving up five runs to the Squadron on two doubles, a single and two errors.

"Our pitching held up, but we got lax because the momentum slowed a little bit," Holland said of the five-run sixth for the Squadron. "We stood around a lot out there because of some of the walks we had. Other than that if we keep the flow of the game going I think we play a lot better."

The late-inning scoring by Highland Home pulled them within two, but PCHS put it out of reach with a bases loaded single by Elijah Daniels and another by Dee Price to put up four runs for the Bulldogs in the bottom of the seventh.

As far as his team’s long stints of consecutive games, Holland feels that it has hardened his squad. The long weeks don’t allow as much practice as most coaches would like, but the Bulldogs seem to be getting a lot of experience out of the deal.

"I think we’re doing better," Holland said. "Being in game situations in some ways is a lot better than practice. Overall I think we’re improving. Every now and then we’ll have a couple of let downs, but we’re moving in the right direction."

Today the Bulldogs end their four-day journey with a match at home against Booker T. Washington. Game time is set for 4:30 p.m.