Marlin Andrew Groseclose makes a play toward first base during the game against Kenedy on Thursday, March 22. That game was cut short by weat her and will be finished on April 10. The Port Aransas Marlins opened their regular home season on the diamond on Friday, March 23, taking advantage of at least four errant pitches to steal home plate and knocking off the Woodsboro Eagles, 12-2.

In the Texas High School Baseball Coaches Association posted Friday evening, the Marlins were ranked fifth in 1A baseball teams in the state.

The lights at Port Aransas Community Park were turned off in the bottom of the fifth inning, when a run scored off a first-base error and gave the Marlins the 10-run lead the UIL rules say is needed to call a game complete.

Pitches into the dirt got away from the Eagles’ catcher twice in the second inning and again in the fourth and in the fifth innings, each of which resulted in a Port Aransas run.

The game- winner came on a grounder to the Woodsboro first baseman, which he bobbled long enough to let the runner on third tag up and come home.

Not all the scoring came from taking advantage of those opportunities, however. The Marlins seem to have found an offensive rhythm that coach Brian Flack said was lacking in earlier games, scattering 16 hits through the five innings.

Only one batter struck out, and every batter that came to the plate more than once accounted for at least one RBI.

“(The) kids came out and played an overall good game,” Flack said of Friday’s effort. “We hit the ball hard.”

Alex Groseclose and Tyler Pate led that attack, each getting three hits in four at-bats and batting in two runs apiece. Andrew Groseclose and Jake Roberts were two for three, each with one RBI. Caleb Rogers drove in two runs with two hits in four times at bat.

Blue Shodrock went two for two and batted in a run, and Andrew Follett and John Amundsen each went one for three.

Andrew Groseclose started the game on the mound for the Marlins and picked up the win, going four full innings and allowing three hits and two runs. Groseclose struck out four batters and walked two.

Caleb Rogers took over at the top of the fifth, allowing one hit and striking out two. He walked no batters.

The win brought the Marlins to an overall record of 11-2 and a district record of 1-0.