The Preston Pirate spring baseball team improved to 10-1 on the year Tuesday evening with a 13-1 thrashing of the visiting Okemah Panthers.

The Pirates returned to action this weekend at the 2nd Annual Bobby Mudd Memorial Tournament in Mounds. The first opponent for the Preston diamond squad at the 3-day event was the Liberty (Mounds) Tigers Thursday at 6:15 p.m.

A win over the Tigers will put the Pirates into Friday’s semifinal round and a 4 p.m. battle with the winner of Tulsa Edison and Drumright, who began the tournament action on Thursday. A loss to the Tigers will drop the Pirates into Friday’s consolation semifinal round and an 11 a.m. battle with the loser of Tulsa Edison and Drumright.

The championship game at the Mounds Tournament is slated for Saturday at 5:30 p.m.

In Tuesday’s rout of Okemah, the visitors tallied their lone run in the top of the third.

Preston opened the scoring with five runs in the bottom of the first, then put the game out of reach with an 8-run second.

Waylon Cope went the distance on the mound for Preston to earn the pitching win. Cope allowed one run on four hits, striking out three and walking one in three innings of work.

Kaden Dean was the top hitter for the Pirates on Tuesday, finishing 3 for 3 with a single, two doubles, and 4 RBIs.

Easton Shaw also recorded a multi-hit game for Preston in the run-rule win, going 2 for 2 with a single, triple, and 4 RBIs.

The other base hits for the Pirates on Tuesday came on singles by Kellen Dean, Luke Hankins, and Cooper Ausbrooks and RBI singles by Cope and Braxton Kennedy.

Hankins drove in a pair of runs for Preston against Okemah with a pair of RBI sacrifice flies.

— Preston 13, Okemah 1

Okemah:0-0-1 1 – 4 -2 Preston: 5 – 8 – x 13 – 10 – 0 WP: Waylon Cope LP: Arthurs HR: None