PLAS takes out No. 9 Fort Dale on the road

Published 10:52 pm Tuesday, April 6, 2010

The Pike Liberal Arts baseball team continued wrecking path on Tuesday night, this time with Fort Dale as the falling opponent.

The Patriots shot down the Eagles in six innings, thanks to a 17-7 victory.

This was the team’s fourth win a row, improving PLAS to 22-3 overall.

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“This was a big win for us,” head coach Butch Austin said.

“We played flat against Lakeside on Monday and we bounced back well (Tuesday night) against a good team.

“We needed this win – it was a good reminder for us that we just can’t turn the light off and on, we need to keep it on all the time,” the coach added.

Justin McLaughlin earned his third win of the season, pitching 4 1/3 innings, allowing four earned runs, while striking out three.

The runs scored against the senior were the first he has allowed all season.

“I thought Justin pitched real well for us,” Austin said.

Ross Hixon came in to finish the rest of the game after McLaughlin.

At the plate, five different Patriots had three hits as Trey Walters, Nick McLaughlin and Will Starling each finished 3-4, while Logan Stewart and Blake Floyd finished 3-5.

Starling hit his sixth home run of the season, and added three RBIs along the way. Justin McLaughlin and Sam Carroll each finished 2-4.

Both players also drove in three runs. This was the team’s last away game of the season as it now sets its sights on for another big region game against Glenwood on Friday.

“Glenwood is a good team,” Austin said. “We are going to need to win that game if we want to win the region.”