The Baker High School softball team rallied from a 5-1 deficit in its season opener at Mac-Hi Tuesday night but the Pioneers held on for an 8-6 win.

Baker scored three runs in the fifth inning to get within 5-3, but an umpire’s inadvertent dead ball call cost Baker an out, and led to two Mac-Hi runs, Baker coach Steve Bachman said.

“It was a weird play,” he said.

The Bulldogs scored three runs in the top of the seventh but the rally fell short.

Bachman, Baker’s former softball coach who returned to the dugout this year, said Baker was “rusty” early, including at the plate where the Bulldogs stranded several runners in scoring position.

“We battled back and shook off the rust later in the game,” Bachman said.

Raegan Gulick was 2 for 4, including a double, and drove in five of Baker’s six runs.

Colbi Bachman was 3 for 4 with a triple, Macey Morgan had an RBI double, and freshman Paityn Barr was 2 for 3 in her first high school game.

Steve Bachman said all three Baker pitchers threw well.

Kodi Miller started in the circle and gave up only one unearned run in two innings.

Reagan Ritter went 3.2 innings, and Gulick got the final out.

Mac-Hi lead 1-0 after the first inning, but Baker tied it on Gulick’s groundout to shortstop in the third, scoring Colbi Bachman.

Mac-Hi scored two runs in the third and fourth innings to go ahead 5-1.

Baker cut the lead to 5-3 in the fifth on Gulick’s single and a Mac-Hi error on the same play.

The Pioneers added three runs in the sixth to lead 8-3.

Down to their last at bat, Baker opened the seventh with Maylee Martin’s single. Bachman reached on an error, and Gulick drove in both runners with a double to left field.

Macey Morgan followed with a double to score Gulick and trim the lead to 8-6 with no outs.

But the Bulldogs couldn’t keep the rally going.

Baker, which is a co-op team including players from Pine Eagle and Powder Valley, travels to Nampa, Idaho, for a two-day tournament Friday and Saturday, March 21-22. Baker will play Preston, Idaho, and Grangeville, Idaho, on Friday, and Centennial, Idaho, and McCall-Donnelly, Idaho, on Saturday.

The Bulldogs’ first home game is set for Saturday, April 5, at noon, against Crook County at the Baker Sports Complex.