Free State High baseball coach Mike Hill thought his team’s pitchers might be a bit sharper than his batters heading into Tuesday’s season opener at FSHS field.

He was right.

Four Firebird hurlers combined for a two-hit effort in a 5-2 victory over Kansas City Washington.

But the pitching-dominated victory didn’t have Hill concerned about his team’s offensive output.

“Naturally you’d love to have 10 hits and 10 runs every game, but that’s not always going to happen,” Hill said. “I thought our pitchers did a really good job.

“Our bats weren’t quite as solid, but I think that was kind of a case of the first-game jitters.”

If senior David Arndt had butterflies, it didn’t show. The outfielder went 3-for-3 and drove in three runs.

“We hit the ball alright,” Arndt said. “We certainly hit the ball hard in the gap a couple of times. I think we’ll be all right offensively.”

There was no second-guessing the Firebirds’ pitching Tuesday, even though Hill said prior to the season he didn’t know if his staff had a dominant ace like in past seasons.

If that’s the case, Hill might have to pitch his whole staff. That strategy worked well Tuesday when three pitchers went five innings without surrendering a hit.

KC Washington finally got on the board in the sixth when Darrell Stuckey broke open Free State’s no-hitter with a hard-lined single.

Stuckey then scored on Tony Townsend’s sacrifice fly, but by then the game was all but over.

Free State tallied a run in the first when Ryne Price, the son of Kansas University baseball coach Ritch Price, brought in senior Matt Berner, who had doubled.

The Firebirds added another run in the fourth and put up three in the fifth when Arndt smacked a two-run single.

“I think we all did about like we thought we’d do today,” said senior Matt Lane, who along with starter Nate Burman and pitcher Blake Dickson gave up one run and one hit, striking out six batters in six innings. “We had four different arms and each one did their jobs.”

Price closed out the seventh after giving up one run with two consecutive strikeouts.

Free State High 5, Kansas City Washington 2

KC Washington 000 001 1 — 2 2 5

Free State 100 130 x — 5 5 2

WP — Nate Burman (1-0). LP — Kenny Townsend (0-1).

2B — FSHS: Matt Berner.

Free State highlights — David Arndt, 3-3, 3 RBIs.