One bad inning combined with 11 strikeouts resulted in the Oak Harbor High School baseball team losing 6-3 to Jackson in the opening non-league game of the season for both squads Tuesday afternoon.

Jackson put the first run on the board in the top of the first inning on a leadoff triple by Danny Oh and an infield out. Oh was 3-for-4 in the game with a pair of runs scored.

Oak Harbor had a chance to tie the count in the bottom of the first when leadoff batter Chris Reilly collected a single, stole second after being picked off and advanced to third on a sacrifice bunt.

With one out, bad luck bit the Wildcats when coach Jim Waller put on the squeeze play with Johnny Encinas at the plate.

Jackson pitcher Mike Wisco threw a curve ball in the dirt and there was nothing Encinas could do to get the bunt down, and Reilly was tagged out at third base in a rundown.

“It was just one of those things that happens,” Waller said. “The ball bounced up there and Johnny couldn’t do a thing with it.”

Reilly had two of Oak Harbor’s six hits in the game.

After giving up the first-inning run, Oak Harbor’s Danny Lura shut Jackson out in the second and third innings, allowing just one additional hit while striking out five.

The Wildcats defense went south in the fourth inning with Reilly on the mound in relief, and four errors resulted in Jackson scoring five runs to take a 6-0 lead.

“I thought all our pitchers threw the ball well today, even Chris,” Waller said. “He threw strikes, he just didn’t get any support behind him. We played six good innings of baseball today. Unfortunately, the game is seven innings long.”

Oak Harbor fought back in the bottom half of the fourth inning scoring three times off Jackson reliever Jordan Kellington to cut the lead in half, but those would be the final runs the Wildcats would put on the board.

The bats went silent for Oak Harbor in the final three innings and the strikeouts began piling up.

“We struck out 11 times and six of those came on call third strikes, that’s unacceptable,” Waller said. “This is the first game of the season and we are still in the process of getting our hitting eyes, but we have to be more aggressive at the plate.”

Oak Harbor returns to action at 1 p.m. today, hosting Ferndale.