Walks hurt the Pike Lady Patriots in a 15-1 loss to the Macon East Knights on Thursday night.

In the matchup between Patriots starter Sam Yarbrough and Paxton Searle of Macon East it was Searle who stole the show.

“It was just a rough night,” said Patriots head coach Robert Rollen. “Things didn’t go our way. We started out good and we kind of fell apart. Sometimes that happens in softball and we didn’t respond to it.”

Yarbrough went six innings for the Patriots on Thursday allowing seven runs on seven hits, but it was her 12 walks that became too much to overcome.

“She just has to control her pitches,” Rollen said. “She got flustered with the strike zone. That affected her a little bit. As a young pitcher you just have to look past all of it.”

Searle on the other hand dominated the Patriots hitters. She pitched the entire game for the Knights without allowing a run on two hits. She struck out five.

“She is good,” Rollen said. “She poured strikes in the zone. She makes you swing at her pitches and she keeps you on the defensive.”

The Knights scored in early in the contest when they sent five batters to the plate in the first. A double scored the first run of the game for the Knights.

After holding the powerful Knights offense in the second, Macon East increased their lead to 2-0 in the third.

In the fourth the wheels began to come off for the Patriots. The Knights sent 10 batters to the plate and scored four runs on three hits and four walks.

After once again adding a run in the fifth, the Knights steamrolled their way through the sixth inning by putting up eight runs to go up 15-0.

The Patriots picked up their lone run in the bottom of the sixth when Yarbrough scored on an errant throw by the catcher to the pitcher.

The Patriots will begin play in the Jonah McWaters tournament starting today at 1:30 when they match up with Lakeside. They will return to the field at 6 to take on Crenshaw.