Behind five innings of shutout baseball from pitcher Blake Grellhesl the Junction City Brigade rolled to a 6-3 win over the Rossville Rattlers Saturday night at Rathert Field.

Grellhesl started for Junction City and left after five innings with a 5-0 lead. A combination of relief pitchers held off Rossville, with Charlie Peyla of Junction City, throwing a scoreless eighth inning for the Brigade.

Junction City jumped on top of the Rattlers earlier by scoring four runs in the first inning on the strength of two hits, a walk and two errors by Rossville. They added solo runs in the third and eighth innings before a large home opener crowd at Rathert field.

Brigade coach Seth Wheeler was proud of the performance by Grellhesl. “He was so efficient with his pitch count. He was only supposed to throw three, but he was just so efficient and getting early outs that we just kept throwing him out there for one more and then one more and he was able to get us through five. He’s the reason we won.”

The win completed a three-game of the Rattlers by Junction City. The brigade took the first two games of the series in Rossville Thursday and Friday nights.

The home opener at Rathert Field also included Brigadier General Patrick Frank throwing out the first pitch, and remarks to the crowd by both Frank and U.S. Senator Jerry Moran before the ballgame.

The night ended with a fireworks display at the ballpark.