Knoch baseball coach George Bradley huddled his team together near the pitching mound at Kelly Automotive Park and pointed at the right-centerfield scoreboard.

There was an unsightly number still lit up on it.

Four.

As in four runs in the top of the first inning for Deer Lakes. As in all the runs the Lancers would need as Knoch dropped its first game of the season, 6-3, Wednesday afternoon.

“I told them to look at that four in the first inning,” Bradley said. “We made some mistakes and you're not going to win any games doing that.”

For Deer Lakes (5-1, 2-0), it was an important way to start off on the road in its new section.

Still, Deer Lakes coach Jon Pedrosky was nervous despite that early 4-0 lead that swelled to 6-0 in the third.

“As much as I would have liked to win 6-0, I knew that wasn't going to happen,” Pedrosky said, laughing. “Knoch is a very good team. They can hit the ball. They hit one-through-nine in the order.”

Deer Lakes' lefty Ryan Petrone, though, limited Knoch to just four hits.

He retired the first 10 batters he faced until getting into trouble with one out on the fourth.

A fielding error opened the door for Knoch (3-1, 1-1), which got a RBI single from Cole Shinsky and a two-run single by Addis Crouch to cut the lead in half.

Knoch had chances to tack on more runs with two in scoring position in the sixth, but Petrone was able to get out of that jam.

He worked a 1-2-3 seventh for the win, despite only striking out one Knoch batter in seven innings.

“He was a crafty lefty,” Bradley said. “We put good swings on him, but hit it right at people. That's baseball.”

Chris Law went 2-for-3 with a double for the Knights.

Nick Guercio picked up the loss and lasted just one inning.

“Nick has been sick and he didn't get to throw much today,” Bradley said. “He deserved to pitch. He pitched well the last couple of times out.”

Dominic Bucko relieved Guercio and pitched well in relief, giving up just two runs in 4 2/3 innings.

Law got the final four outs for Knoch, striking out three.

“I learned something with Dom,” Bradley said. “I'm going to have to have him warm up a little more, because once he gets on a roll, he gets hot.”

Bradley said the loss will only serve to motivate Knoch heading forward.

“We may look at this later as the best thing that could have happened to us,” Bradley said. “They said they were ready after (a 3-1 win over Hampton Tuesday), but on the bus we're going to look at it like, 'Were we really ready?' It's not fatal. It's early and there's a lot of baseball left to play.”

Deer Lakes 402 000 0 — 6 10 2

Knoch 000 300 0 — 3 4 1

W: Ryan Petrone 7IP (1K, 3BB). L: Nick Guercio 1IP (1K, 0BB).

Deer Lakes (5-1, 2-0): Sean Logan 1B, Zach Lubick 2-1B, Petrone 1B 2-RBI, Zach Butler 1B, Jake Spirnock 2B 1B RBI, Hunter Burns 1B RBI, Connor Chirdon 1B 2-RBI, Jake McCaskey 1B

Knoch (3-1, 1-1): Chris Law 1B 2B, Cole Shinsku 1B RBI, Addis Crouch 1B 2-RBI

Tuesday: Knoch at Valley