With the sing-song, high-pitched chants flying out of the home team’s dugout like mosquitoes Friday night at Free State High, it would have been easy for someone to think they were at a girls summer softball game instead of a boys American Legion baseball contest.

Not so. It was indeed the guys on the Lawrence Outlaws razzing each other during the second game of a doubleheader against Gardner.

And luckily for the Outlaws they were playing well enough to take the time to have fun, something they didn’t do on Tuesday when they were pasted in their long-awaited home opener by the Kansas City Grays.

“We weren’t having very much fun a few days ago after we got our butts beat,” said Outlaws coach Ryan Goodwin, whose team improved to 10-15. “But tonight they sure were, and I was glad to see it.”

The Outlaws’ smiles flashed early Friday when Lawrence doubled-up Gardner, 6-3, in the first game of the twinbill, but the hijinks and dramatics had to wait until the second game.

David Allen quickly put an end to the abbreviated game that was tied at 1-all in the bottom of the fifth inning when he drilled a line drive to the left-field wall that easily scored Sheldon McGuire all the way from first for the game winner.

“Yeah, we were having a lot of fun tonight out here,” Allen said with a big grin. “We play a lot better when we’re loose.”

Allen’s statement seems to have some truth, because the Outlaws looked like a completely different team Friday than the one that committed eight errors in its first game at home Tuesday after 20 games on the road.

“They came out a lot more confident tonight, you could just tell that by their attitudes,” Goodwin said. “The other night we had a couple mistakes, but then we let those mistakes create more mistakes. Tonight they just had the confidence that they were going to make plays.”

In the opener, the Outlaws got out to a quick 2-0 lead, scoring runs in the first and second innings. Gardner tied things up in the third, but the Outlaws responded with their biggest inning of the twinbill, plating four in the bottom half of the third.

The lead was more than enough for starter Sheldon McGuire, who pitched all seven innings.

The Outlaws, who travel today to Topeka, are hoping the confidence from the two home victories will continue.

“It’s a big boost for us,” said Austin Engling, a senior-to-be at Lawrence High. “Tonight was fun and we really played with some confidence which had been missing lately for us.”

Lawrence Outlaws 6, Gardner 3

Gardner 002 000 1 Â 3 5 1

Outlaws 114 000 x  6 9 3

WPÂSheldon McGuire. LPÂBrandon Humphrey.

Outlaws Highlights: Austin Engling 3-for-3, 3 RBIs; Cameron Taylor 2-for-3.

Outlaws 2, Gardner 1

Gardner (10-5) 001 00 Â 1 8 2

Outlaws (10-15) 001 01 Â 2 5 0

WPÂDavid Arndt. LPÂBrandon Rall.

Outlaws Highlights: Dominick Harrell 1-for-2, 2B, RBI; David Allen 1-for-2, 2B, RBI.