After putting one run on the board in the bottom of the first inning, the Oak Harbor AA American Legion baseball team sent 11 batters to the plate in the bottom of the second, scored six runs and cruised to a 16-1 victory over Mount Vernon Wednesday evening.

The game was called after five innings of action on the 10-run mercy rule.

“It was fun, not fun for the other team, in terms of what we did,” coach John Humphries said. “It was nice to get a win like that in a year that’s been tough losing a game here and there by one run.”

Oak Harbor’s pitching trio of Ryan Byrne, Josh Higbee and Jay Stout held Mount Vernon to a single hit and combined to strike out seven batters in what was a dominating performance.

“I wanted to go longer with Ryan Byrne because he was really on, but we have a tournament this weekend in Anacortes and I held him back so we can use him longer this weekend,” Humphries said. “The other two came in and did great for not pitching that much during the season.”

Sam Wolfe, Jake Hill, Yale Rosen, Byrne and Higbee drove in two runs each for the Wildcats who collected nine hits in the game and were helped along by a hit batter, 12 walks and five Mount Vernon errors.

Holding a 7-0 lead after two innings of play, the Wildcats once again sent 11 batters to the plate in the bottom of the third, scoring five more runs to take a commanding 12-0 lead.

Mount Vernon’s lone run came in the top of the fourth on a triple by Kyle Larson and a throwing error.

“We played sound defense and got some hits,” Humphries said. “We made a few little mistakes that we continue to have to work on, but overall we played a good game.”