Matthew Elrod of Highland Baptist connects with a pitch.

In baseball, there’s small ball.

Playing to get a runner on base, then advance by hit, sacrifice, stolen base and getting him home for a run.

Then there’s extreme small ball, the kind that Highland Baptist played Saturday in its non-district game with Westgate.

The Bears had only five hits, but stole 11 bases, including a straight steal of home, and used that thievery to take a 6-1 win over the Tigers.

“Lately, we’ve been having trouble hitting the ball,” HBCS coacb Brennan Boudreaux said. “When that happens, you try to score runs anyway you can.”

Taking that maxim to heart, Highland had one hit in the first inning but managed to scored three runs to take control of the game, and then held Westgate to one run before putting the game away with another three runs in the sixth, again on only one hit.

“When the bats aren’t going your way, you have to take advantage of what the defense gives you,” Boudreaux said “We saw opportunities today and were able to take advantage of them.”

Including a steal of home.

“We watched the pitcher, figured out his timing on his pitches, took a lead and took off for home,” Boudreaux said. “It worked out for us.”

Ben Gulotta had two hits while Myles Liggans and Matthew Elrod each had a hit and an RBI. Ryan Breaux went all seven innings and allowed one run on five hits with eight strikeouts as the Bears improved to 12-4 overall.

“We’ve been up and down recently so it was good to get a solid win today,” Boudreaux said. “We start district play soon so we have to find a way to get the bats going again.”

For Westgate coach Jerome Jacob, it’s been a struggle so far this season.

“Our defense was a lot better today,” Jacobs said. “We’re still not seeing the ball too well at the plate.

“Guys have been coming in from different sports and we haven’t had the chance to jell together, We;re a young team but we still have a couple of games left before we get into district.”

Keyon Joseph had two hits and an RBI for Westgate while Daylin LeBlanc had two hits for the Tigers as well.

Westgate fell to 1-8 on the year.