Kansas City, Mo. ? Lawrence High built a big early lead and cruised to a 17-5 victory over Kansas City Pembroke Hill on Saturday in its baseball season-opener.

The Lions pounded 17 hits and took advantage of seven Pembroke Hill errors. The run-rule-shortened game ended after five innings.

“It was a good opening win for us. Our offense was probably a little bit better than I expected in our first game,” LHS coach David Petry said. “We had solid pitching. We only walked two batters in five innings, so the pitchers had good control.”

John Parker (1-0) pitched the first three innings for the victory.

Brett McBride finished with two hitless innings.

Lawrence scored four runs in the first inning and held a 15-3 lead entering the bottom of the third.

Kyle Unruh and Ryan Engel led the Lions’ 14-hit attack with three hits apiece. Unruh and Joe Crane drove in three runs each, and Carl Lisher and Tom Bush each collected a pair of hits.

The Lions will play their home-opening doubleheader Tuesday against Leavenworth. Game time is 4:15 p.m. at Ice Field.