PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER – Gladbrook-Reinbeck’s William Kiburis slides safely into second base as GMG’s Noah Teske fields an attempt to catch Kiburis stealing during Tuesday’s non-conference baseball game in Reinbeck.

REINBECK — Speed will be a big component of Gladbrook-Reinbeck baseball’s skill set this summer.

But, at least for last Tuesday night, walking will do.

The Rebels drew six walks in a big fifth inning, guiding G-R to a 12-2 season-opening win over GMG at the Steve Tscherter Complex on May 16.

“We were trying to be somewhat patient, make them throw some pitches,” G-R head coach Scott Kiburis said. “We talked about last year how we became a better team when we took more pitches. … We were able to see the ball a little more and take advantage with runners on base.”

In the top of the fifth, GMG scratched a run across on a RBI single for Wolverine starting pitcher Colin Teske.

PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER – Gladbrook-Reinbeck’s William Kiburis delivers to the plate in the early stages of last Tuesday’s season-opening baseball game against GMG in Reinbeck.

But G-R took advantage of the Wolverines’ early-season lack of pitching depth to parade around the bases until reaching the 10-run rule.

“We ran out of pitching,” GMG coach Mick Long said. “I’m trying to figure out some of these guys that haven’t pitched, we’ve got to get them time on the hill, and we’ve got a game Friday against Nevada so I can’t use certain guys. But I thought our kids played hard and we just had a couple of physical mistakes that don’t happen very often. … This early in the season I was happy with the way our kids performed and we’ll get better and better.”

Isaac Clark finished with three runs batted in for the Rebels. Caleb Egesdal, Logan Giesking and Luke Riffey all had two RBI each.

“Caleb Egesdal had some key hits for us,” Scott Kiburis said, “and we used our speed which is one of our team’s strengths, so I thought we did a really good job putting some pressure on them.”

On the mound, Will Kiburis struck out 12 in five innings pitched, scattering three hits with two walks, one hit batter, and an errant pickoff throw that scored GMG’s first run of the game in the second inning.

PHOTO BY JAKE RYDER – Gladbrook-Reinbeck’s Austin Gehring crosses home plate as one of two runs scored on a double by Caleb Egesdal in the fifth inning of G-R’s 12-2 win over GMG in Reinbeck last Tuesday.

“He’s been throwing in the spring and I thought he did a pretty good job,” Scott Kiburis said. “He’s trying some things out, they had a really good approach against him. But for the first game, he did a good job.”

GMG fell to 0-2 after a 10-2 loss on Monday against BGM.

“[Kiburis] is as good a pitcher as we’ll see all year and I’m happy with the way we were in it,” Long said. “We’ve just got to come up with the big hits early on.”

“We’ll get to see a lot of our guys pitch,” Scott Kiburis said. “We’re starting the season with five games this week, great weather, we’ve got to take advantage of it.”