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The Pike Liberal Arts Patriots baseball team traveled to Florida on Feb. 26 and split a doubleheader with Leon High School (Fla.) and Lincoln High School (Fla.).

Pike started the day off with a 7-3 loss to Leon after taking an early 1-0 lead in the first inning. Leon tied the score 1-1 in the second inning and then went up 2-1 in the third inning. After Pike tied the score 2-2 in the top of the fourth inning, Leon took control with three runs in the bottom of the fourth. Leon scored two more runs in the sixth inning to extend the lead to 7-2. The Patriots managed to score one more run in the seventh inning but couldn’t draw any closer.

Drew Nelson led the Pats at the plate, going 2-for-4 with a run, while Jayden Jordan and Arden Wiser scored the other two runs. Pres Jefcoat pitched four innings and fanned three batters, while giving up four hits and one earned run. Will Rice also pitched two innings and struck out a batter, while giving up five hits and one earned run. Leon scored five runs on errors.

In game two, Pike took a 1-0 win over Florida Class 5A powerhouse Lincoln in a defensive battle. With the two sides scoreless in the top of the seventh inning, Pike’s KC Bradford singled a ground ball into leftfield driving home Kase Chirico to put the Patriots up 1-0. Pike managed to hold Lincoln scoreless again in the bottom of the seventh to earn the win.

Bradford and John Lott earned the only hits of the day for Pike. Drew Nelson pitched five and 1/3 innings with two strikeouts, while giving up just two hits and no runs. Darryl Lee finished off the game pitching the final one and 2/3 innings with a strikeout and just one hit allowed.