It was a big step forward, especially in the pitching department.

Tomah’s 16-and-under American Legion Juniors baseball team got its best pitching of the season during a split against Richland Center Saturday at Dennis Senz Field. Tomah won the first game, 14-4, and lost the second game, 6-5.

The opener was Tomah’s first victory of the season and a boost for a pitching staff that was rocked for 53 runs in its first three games.

“We preach winning the battles and throwing strikes,” Tomah coach Matt Dutton said. “Today, our pitchers went out and threw strikes. They did a good job of getting ahead of the count. When you get the count to 0-1, 0-2, 1-2, pitchers can throw their pitch.”

It was Tyler Von Haden who practiced the art of throwing strikes in the first game. Von Haden didn’t overpower the Richland Center batting order, but walked only one batter and struck out two while giving up eight hits.

The game was pretty much decided in the second inning, when Tomah scored seven runs. Joey Organ led off with a walk and Alex Egstad hit a double that sent Organ to third. After that, Wyatt Blado, Eric Egstad, Tommy Liddane, Organ, Alex Egstad and Ryan Felber all hit RBI singles during an inning in which Tomah sent 13 batters to the plate.

Organ smashed an RBI double in the fourth to push Tomah’s lead to 12-4.

In the fifth, Tomah triggered the 10-run rule with a pair of runs. Eric Kirchner and Aaron Long began the inning with back-to-back singles, and back-to-back RBI singles by Organ and Alex Egstad ended the contest.

Tomah fell behind, 6-0, in the second game but nearly rallied to win. Tomah didn’t score until the fifth, when Felber and Blado cracked RBI singles and Alex Egstad scored on a balk.