The Horizon baseball team opened the season with tough competition in the Scottsdale Quarterback Club Invitational the final week of February. Since posting a 2-2 mark in the tourney in pool play the Huskies have responded by winning four of their last five games.

The latest triumph came Friday afternoon on the road at Dobson where the visiting Huskies were adept at executing on offense and making the Mustangs pay for mistakes in a 12-2 victory shortened to six innings by the 10-run rule.

"We've been on again and off again to begin the year," Horizon coach Eric Kibler said. "We're starting to become more consistent. We did a good job of hitting today and have been in a lot of games. The defense is getting better. Pitching is our concern. It's a work in progress."

Horizon (6-3) used two of Dobson's three errors to score six of its 12 runs. A two-out error in the fifth made a small rally a huge one (six runs) that blunted the Mustangs' bid at making a game of it. Dobson trailed just 4-2 after four innings.

"That's all it takes against these guys," Dobson coach Dave Tykoski said. "You make an error and it opens the door for them. They take advantage and that's what they did today."

Kyle Woods, Johnny Rubino, Zach Stierstorfer and Tanner Horn drove in two runs apiece for Horizon, which had three doubles, two triples and a home run among its 10 hits. Rubino doubled twice, Horn had a double and triple and Stierstorfer supplied the 10-run lead in the top of the sixth with a long homer to left center.

On the pitching side Kibler is still trying to nail down a rotation. His plan Friday was to start junior Nick Kloos and follow up with senior C.J. Mesko. Both pitched three innings, gave up three hits and a run each. Their effectiveness augmented the offensive output of their teammates, who moved runners, executed a sacrifice and squeeze successfully and took outside pitches to the opposite field gaps for extra bases.

Dobson dropped to 6-3 and has lost two straight after posting a six-game winning streak. Big innings were the culprit in both losses this week.

"We have a great group of guys," Tykoski said. "They work hard. We couldn't hold a 6-1 lead the other day with Westwood. It was a big inning that hurt us in that one, too. We need to control innings like that."

Dobson continues play next week participating in the Highland Triple Play Classic Monday through Thursday at Highland High. Horizon has a light schedule with one power-point game against Tucson High on Friday March 18 at Horizon.