The Heinrich baseball league Pirates team didn’t take home buried treasure on Thursday night at Holcom Park, but they bagged 30 runs to take the 30-3 victory against the Bandits.

The Pirates stashed away 11 runs in the first inning to rocket them to an early lead. Pirates head coach Mark McCarthy said the he had a very clear strategy for the team to swing hard at the beginning of the game.

“We were good coming out and playing aggressively,” McCarthy said. “Any coach would tell his players to be aggressive from the very first pitch.”

The Pirates followed McCarthy’s wish and began to build their huge margin of victory off the very first pitch. Seth Dirks-Ham hit a single. Dustin Walthall and Nick Dunkle followed him up with singles of their own to send Dirks-Ham flying over home plate for the Pirates’ first run of the game. Eric McCarthy swung the hottest bat of the game in the first inning to propel himself to third base and send Walthall and Dunkle waltzing home.

Pirate Chase Billings stands at the plate in the third inning of their Heinrich league contest with the Bandits on Thursday at Holcom Park. Billings connected for a single.

The Bandits struggled to compensate with a few hits of their own. The team hit a double to bring two players home. The Bandits brought in a final run in the first inning to give themselves the three runs that they would cling to throughout the rest of the game.

The Pirate offense brought another seven runs home in the second inning, including RBIs from Chase Billings and Jake Brown.

Coach McCarthy said he wanted each of the players to get in some valuable ball time with different positions throughout the game.

“This game was a good workout for us,” he said. “We try and get the players on different positions. This league is really about opportunities.”

The Pirates bats took a rest during an slow fourth inning because the Bandits pitching got a spark by finding the strike zone. The Bandits enjoyed some movement on bases, though it was not enough to pull them out of a 21-run deficit.

The Pirates came back in the fifth inning to drive in six more runs before the two-hour time limit ended the game. Coach McCarthy said the win would be a benefit to the Pirates’ 6-5 record. The team has also had some success in tournament play with an appearance in the semi-finals round of a tournament at Heritage Park in Olathe.

Coach McCarthy said he was glad the team had their match-up with the Bandits to further his team’s goal of increasing their fielding skills.

“Our goal this season is to hit the ball well and drive in runs,” McCarthy said. “We want to continue to improve our hitting and our defensive play. We did well this game hitting the ball but we can always use some practice.”