The Pike Liberal Arts School Patriots baseball team put on a dominating performance against Abbeville Christian Friday in game four of the Jonah McWaters Invitational, winning 14-0 and ending the game in the fifth inning.

The Patriots set the pace for the game right out of the gate, going up five runs in the first inning, a streak that included a double by Taytom Barnes that brought in two runs.

Barnes would go on to hit the patriots only home run in the fourth inning, bringing in two runs to make the score 10-0.

“I thought we played really well today,” Patriots head coach Butch Austin. “We hit the ball well and played a strong defense and when you can come out and do that you’re able to win. We were swinging at some good pitches today. Usually we’ll swing at almost anything but today we were finding strikes and played a good game all around.”

The Patriots were able to secure the early ending to the game in fourth inning, scoring five runs to go up 14-0.

The inning included a big hit by Lawson Stewart, who sent one all the way to the left field wall for a double and three RBIs in the final scoring drive of the game.

The Patriots only had one scoreless inning throughout the game, hitting two pop fly outs and adding another out at first to end the third inning.

Aside from a strong presence on the plate, the Patriots put on an aggressive base running game stealing multiple bases to get into scoring position and even taking home for two runs in the second.

“We’re trying to get ready for the rest of our region on our base running by getting more aggressive,” Austin said. “We need to improve on our bunts as well. Tomorrow we’ll probably have Taytom pitch and put some new players in but we’ve mainly just got to stay aggressive.”

On defense the Patriots were equally effective, with pitcher Reed Dickey throwing four strikeouts and the Patriots defense keeping Abbeville off base in two innings.

“On defense we made some great plays,” Austin said. “Chandler Avant at shortstop especially did well but we’re supposed to play a good defense with as many fly balls and grounders as we practice every day.”

The Patriots will advance to the next round of the tournament and will play the winner of Friday’s Crenshaw Christian vs. Tuscaloosa game.

The Patriots will play again on Saturday at 12 p.m. at home.