Just two games into the season, Free State High’s baseball team has shown it can win various ways.

The Firebirds defeated Shawnee Mission South, 3-0, in a pitcher’s duel on Thursday at FSHS after defeating Kansas City Washington, 19-5, on Wednesday.

“We won today with pitching and timely hitting,” FSHS coach Mike Hill said. “We’ve won two different ways and that’s important for us. We can’t be one-dimensional.”

Eric Peterson, a Kansas University signee, started his senior year on a high note, striking out 10 Raiders and allowing just six hits in seven shutout innings.

“Pedo was Pedo,” Hill said. “He was a dominant pitcher. He fell behind early on too many people, but his stuff is good enough to make up for it. He can’t do that all the time, but he knows that.”

After Peterson got out of the first inning unscathed, the Firebirds gave him a one-run lead on a Matt Berner sacrifice fly in the bottom of the first.

David Allen led off the first with a triple and Chris Barr walked before Berner hit a flyball to right field, scoring Allen. Jeremiah Gress, who was 5-for-5 against KC Washington, followed with a single but the Firebirds (2-0) couldn’t score again.

Peterson struggled a bit in the fourth with two runners on and just one out, but he struck out Jeff Cathey and forced Wes Stanley to ground out to end the threat.

SM South threatened in the sixth inning also, when Butler County CC signee Matt Gray laced a leadoff triple down the right-field line. Peterson settled down, though, and struck out the next three hitters.

“He came back against the 4-5-6 hitters, who are quality hitters, and struck them out,” Hill said. “You can’t ask for more than that. It spurred our kids on and gave them some momentum.”

In the bottom of the inning, Berner drove home another run with a double and Gress added a sacrifice fly for the final run.

With just five victories last year and 11 in the past two seasons, Hill is pleased to start off with two victories and what it may mean for the Firebirds.

“We feel good about the start and wins,” he said. “They’ve been few and far between here recently and to get off to a 2-0 run is important for our psyche.”

Free State’s next game is against Lawrence High at 4:30 p.m. Tuesday at Ice Field.

Free State 3, SM South 0

SM South (0-1) 000 000 0 0 6 0

Free State (2-0) 100 002 x 3 3 2

W Eric Peterson (1-0). L Scott Nelson (0-1).

2B Free State: Matt Berner. 3B SM South: Matt Gray; FSHS: David Allen.

FSHS highlights Berner, 1-2, 2B, run, 2 RBI; Jeremiah Gress, 1-2, RBI.