Baker baseball coach Tim Smith’s biggest complaint with his players is that they had been watching too many pitches whiz past and thud into the catcher’s mitt for strikes.

On Wednesday the Bulldogs swung at those pitches.

And hit most of them.

The result was 14 hits, four of them for extra bases, in a 9-2 win over Burns at the Baker Sports Complex.

And a happier coach.

“Our hitting really came around,” Smith said. “Our pitching has been solid all year, and our defense has been above average, but our batting has been slow. We finally put an entire game together.”

Trevor Bennett ignited Baker’s offense Wednesday, leading off the bottom of the third inning with a solo home run.

Baker, which evened its record at 3-3, added three more runs to take a 4-0 lead, then plated a pair of runs in the fourth to go ahead 6-0.

Bennett, who was also Baker’s starting pitcher, meanwhile was masterful against the Burns lineup.

He struck out eight and allowed just two hits in six innings before yielding to Draven Pearce, who struck out two in a scoreless seventh inning.

Burns scored both of its runs – one of them earned – in the fifth.

It was the first earned run Bennett has allowed this season.

“We really pitched well,” Smith said.

Bennett and Pearce combined to throw 68 strikes out of 108 total pitches.

Baker committed two errors.

See more in Friday’s issue of the Baker City Herald.