The Soldotna baseball team improved to 4-0 overall with a 15-1 victory over Houston at the Buddy Dale Tournament in Wasilla on Thursday, while Kenai Central lost to Palmer 15-4 to fall to 0-2 overall.

The Soldotna game ended after six innings due to the mercy rule, while the Kenai game ended after five innings due to the mercy rule.

For Soldotna, Dylan Davidhizar, Nate Mowery, Levi Mickelson and Derrick Jones all pitched less than three innings and combined to hold the Hawks to two hits. The group combined for 10 strikeouts and five walks.

At the plate, Jacob Belger had three runs, Mickelson was 2 for 3, Atticus Gibson had two RBIs, Andrew Pieh was 3 for 5 with two runs, Jones had two runs, Sage Cruz had two runs and Gavin Jones was 2 for 4 with three runs and four RBIs.

In the Kenai game, Kardinals coach Luke Oliver said his squad had a rough first inning and could not recover. Oliver said his team is young.

“A lot of freshmen and sophomores came out this year,” he said. “We’re looking to get game experience under our belts and hope it translates to better play come region time.”

Oliver said a positive to come out of the game was his team kept fighting the whole way and did a great job making contact and forcing the Moose to make plays to record outs.