The Highline Pirates handled the W.R. Meyers Rebels with very little problem, springing for five runs in the first inning on hitting and "good eyes" - and getting hit -- en route to a 15-1 win over the up-North and East Canadian visitor in a five-inning, 10-run rule shortened game at Mosier Field Monday April 7.

The Pirates are having a good season, being with only one loss to their rival, Mount Rainier, 6-4, about three weeks ago now. So, even if W.R. Meyers may have been at their best it still may have been no contest. The Taber, Alberta team lost two of their their other games, too. But it was a tough trip.

"They've played four games in five days. They are a little road weary," said Dave Larson, Highline's head coach.

W.R. Meyers played teams from Silverdale, Port Angeles areas as well.

But this game was over quickly, no doubt about that, as the very first inning the Rebels pitcher could not find the plate, walking the first three batters, who showed "good eyes" as it is termed. But, really, that's may not be the best way to put it. The ball was all over the plate, a sign of, like Larson said, a 'tired' team with little in reserve pitching-wise.

Finally, after the bases were loaded with walks, the next two batters both got RBI the easy way, hit by pitches. So, before the game was a half inning old, and, no outs, the bases were still loaded and two runners were in, hence, 2-0, Pirates.

The next two batters hit the ball for the RBI, Ryan Maynor and Jeremy Rowden, and the score was 5-0 after the first inning. And a lot more after that, getting to 11-1 before the third inning was through. In the bottom of the third inning, complementing his good throwing on the hill, Maynor, a senior, parked the ball over the center field fence the farthest distance for the ball to go over the fence, a three-run shot.

Now, all that said so far. It really should have been an even less close score, should have been 11-0. But after the Rebels pieced together a couple hits to be at first and second base, they scored on an error. The next batter hit the ball to right fielder Brandon D'Andreas. He scooped it up as the runner was wheeling around third base and heading home. He threw a strike to catcher Chris Graham who made a cardinal sin in baseball -- took his eyes off the ball. Turning then to make the tag, the ball popped out of his catcher's glove and he tagged the sliding-in player, without having the ball.

Graham looked a little frustratedly at himself and then looked out to D'Andreas.

"My fault," said Graham. "Good throw."

So that showed some things there in this otherwise meaningless non-league game that had zip to do with the Seamount League stand-ins. It showed the Pirates got a good leader in Graham.

"He is a leader out there," said Larson, who has taken the Pirates to the playoffs in 3A baseball 12 of his 13 years as coach.

Graham spoke a little of the differences of this team and last year's team, moving on to the foreseeable future, so to speak, for the Pirates.

"Our pitching was overpowering more last year," he said. "But this year we still have guys who can get it there (fastballs), but also have off-speed stuff."

Something else mentioned was the hitting of this year's team compared to last year, a team that lost to Bonney Lake in the playoffs that was the game to get to the state tournament.

"I thought our hitting wasn't going to be as good, but it's done pretty good," said Graham, mentioning the game against the Rams. "We got four runs early and then they (Rams) got in a groove."

The Pirates have done their share of scoring this year, to note. The Rams had scored 96 times during their first 10 games and the Pirates 102.

The Pirates have some good talent, like Maynor, who threw only three innings in this game because Larson was in no need to keep an ace type pitcher out there. However, Larson mentioned that he has a lot of good pitching.

But on Maynor, since he pitched this one, Larson said, "He can be a dominant high school pitcher when he is sharp."

Maynor, Tyler Werle, who pitched a little in this game of scoreless relief a couple innings, and Graham have played together the last seven years in one way or another in baseball, including way back when as 12 year olds in all-stars for Little League. So that is nice to have that chemistry of them and others, too, Graham mentioned he has played with the last 2-3 years.

Larson likes coaching this Pirates team because of obvious things.

"The kids are enthused about playing," said Larson.

That was no further obvious than just looking at this game against W.R. Meyer, springbreak week for Highline High School was this week of this game and Larson said only one player was not there.

"These kids are a joy to coach," said Larson. "They really all work hard out there."