The Pike Liberal Arts Patriots traveled to Glenwood Thursday, and although they came home with a loss, head coach Allen Ponder was not disappointed with the team’s performance.

The Patriots lost to the Gators 14-11, but Ponder said he was able to see some aspects of their situational defense come into play during the contest.

“In some situations we made some good decisions, but Glenwood is someone who is going to put pressure on you for seven innings,” Ponder said. “Playing a team like that, it’s always good for you. It’s how you see areas you need to stress and work on getting ready for playoffs.”

But, there are always areas a coach hopes their team can get better in, and for the Patriots Ponder said he hoped the team could minimize the amount of unearned runs allowed.

“Today we made pretty much a lot of the plays,” Ponder said. “We made most of the plays that were hit to us. We’ve got minimize the amount of runs that get up that aren’t unearned. We gave up way too many infield hits. There were a couple of hits that we gave up in the infield that might not have been hits if we could have prevented them. We’ve got to do a better job of thinking before the ball is hit period.”

But, Ponder said the game had done its job of allowing the team to get their feet back underneath them.

“Drew Swung the bat well again,” Ponder said. “We need him to stay hot. Rush swung the bat really well. He’d been struggling as of late, so it was nice to have him hit some balls. That’s very positive for us. As a team we hit a lot better with two strikes. Connor wood came off the bench for us, and he did a good job. We made some strides as a team and we had some individuals get some confidence.”

The Patriots will have the weekend off, but will be back home Monday as they face Coosa Valley at 3:30 p.m.