notched another win against cross-county rival Berea Community.

The Patriots (4-6) took control with an explosive fifth inning — burying the Pirates with 10 runs — and rolled to an 11-1 victory at Turkey Hughes Field at EKU.  

In need of a win, the Pirates (0-5) seemed poised for an upset and scored a run in the top of the first inning.

Zane Brown reached on an error and Ben West followed with an RBI double to center field.

The Pirates held onto to that lead for two more innings, until the bottom of the fourth when Model’s Casey Brandenburg singled on a pop-up fly. The senior stole second and scored after Nate Davis singled on a line drive.

Spurred by their run in the fourth, Model opened up the floodgates in the bottom of the fifth.

Taylor Hill smashed an inside-the-park home run that sent two runners across, only to be followed by a Luke Keck inside-the-park grand slam.

The hits continued and eventually ended with a Mitchell McCown double on a line drive to center field which scored a run. McCown ended the game after scoring on a error.

“They say in baseball the gloves warm-up before the bats. The weather warms up and the bats get hot and thankfully, they got hot tonight,” McCown said of Model’s 10-run inning. “We started off a little slower than usual. We were nervous, but when things got going we turned it up. Winning in five innings, there is no better win than that.”

Model coach Alex Shapiro said much of his team’s success was due to preparation and energy.

“Any time you play a district team you are amped-up. They were pretty excited about it. Anytime we play Berea that’s how it goes. We figured they would throw Zane Brown and the kids were pretty excited for that. We were ready for that,” Shapiro explained.

McCown said the team did not want to repeat the same mistakes of last year’s district tournament, when the Pirates almost upset them in the first round.

“We knew what to expect and what (Brown) has and that helped,” McCown said. “It always feels great to get a district win.”

Luke Keck was 1-for-3 and had one run and four RBI. Taylor Hill was 1-for-2 and had three RBI, Nate Davis was 1-for-2 with one run and two RBI, Mitchell McCown was 1-for-2 with a double, two runs, one RBI and one stolen base. Casey Brandenburg finished with two runs, one RBI and one stolen base.

Cruse Pingleton pitched all five innings for the Patriots and threw 43 strikes out of 64 pitches. He allowed only one hit and one run and had five strikeouts.

Zane Brown went the distance for the Pirates, allowing nine hits, 11 runs (four earned) and walked two batters. He threw 56 strikes out of 86 pitches.

West got the only hit of the game for the Pirates while Brown earned the team’s sole run.

The team combined for five fielding errors, while Model had one.

Shapiro said he hopes his team can build on the recent winning streak.

“I think we have ran into every team’s best pitcher and sooner or later something is going to break,” Shapiro said. “We’ve been working hard in practice and I think the team is getting more comfortable and I think we are prepared for just about anybody we are going to see this year.”