The Woodland High School varsity baseball team earned its first Golden Empire League win of the season after a smooth 15-5 victory over close rivals Dixon.

The Wolves (2-5, 1-4 GEL) came into Wednesday evening’s league showdown at Clark Field riding a brutal five-game losing streak, with each of the past three defeats by a mere run.

After starting the year with a 6-0 home win over Winters on Feb. 24, the Wolves lost 14-1 to Yuba City on Feb. 28 and then opened up their league slate with an 11-7 loss to Sutter on March 10.

The next day, they lost 5-4 to Sutter before a 10-9 loss to Dixon on St. Patrick’s Day and then a 2-1 loss to Sutter on Tuesday.

Dixon (3-5-1, 2-2 GEL) came into the matchup in a bit better form than their hosts, with the aforementioned 10-9 win over the Wolves and an 8-7 win over Rio Linda on March 10. They’d go on to lose their other two games to Rio Linda during a doubleheader, falling 13-9 and then 9-4.

Their only other win this year was an 8-1 win over Winters.

After Dixon led the game off with a run in the top of the first, the Wolves bats came alive early as they appeared to click on all cylinders, according to head coach Danny Eoff.

Cohen Dwyer led the bottom of the first off with a double before stealing third base and then scoring on a PJ Pinegar RBI. Junior David Tanner then came up and smacked a double to score Pinegar and make it 2-1.

Dwyer finished with 2 runs, 1 hit and an RBI. Tanner had the 1 hit and RBI.

Dixon responded with 3 runs in the top of the second to take a 4-2 lead.

After scoring a run in the bottom of the third but then allowing another run in the top of the fourth, the Wolves found themselves down 5-3.

They broke it wide open in the bottom of the fourth, scoring 6 runs to take control at 9-5. Highlighting the inning were Dylan Ramirez and Pinegar, who had back-to-back 2 RBI singles.

Ramirez finished the game with 2 hits, 2 runs, and 2 RBI, while Pinegar scored a run, smashed 2 hits and had 3 RBI.

They’d go on to add three more runs in the bottom of the fifth to make it 12-5 and then another 3 in the bottom of the seventh to trigger the 10-run mercy rule thanks to a bases-loaded Riley Slavemini double over the centerfielder’s head.

Slavemini had 2 hits, 3 RBI, and scored twice.

After a tough second inning, Tanner calmed down enough to finish the six-inning game out, allowing 5 hits to go with 8 strikeouts, 4 walks, and only 2 earned runs.

Up next for the Wolves will be a Friday afternoon road series finale against Dixon, set for 4:15 p.m.