By BRAD HURT ~ DAR Sports Writer

GREENVILLE -- The Greenville Bears didn't have to look hard to find their offense Monday very as they opened the season with an 11-1 win over visiting Bloomfield.

The Bears scored seven times in the first inning of the season and later got three more on a third-inning home run by Tim Hill that cleared the left-center field wall with plenty of room to spare.

Greenville coach Jason Hill said the win, and the early offense, took a lot of pressure off his team.

"Being the first game of the season you like to get that monkey off your back. To come out and put the bat on the ball that early, I guess you expect that but to see it happen is a totally different thing," he said.

Hill's home run completed the scoring on the day, and he scored earlier in the game when winning pitcher Joey Morey drove him home with a second-inning sacrifice fly to left field.

Hill scored three times and was 2-for-2. He was one of eight Bears to cross the plate.

After allowing a first-inning run to the Wildcats, Morey settled down and stranded six baserunners the rest of the way. The Wildcats loaded the bases against him in the second inning after Jake Jackson reached on a dropped third strike that would have ended the inning, but Morey got Dylan Ferguson to ground out to shortstop to end the Wildcats' only real threat.

Morey allowed one run on five hits and struck out seven against a pair of walks before giving way to Tyler Dougherty after four innings.

"I can't say enough about Joey Morey and how he pitched early on," coach Hill said. "He stayed in the strike zone and threw a lot of strikes, and thet's kind of what I try to get him to do. I know we'll be successful especially with the defense behind him."

After the rough start, Bloomfield coach Dustin Hicks said he liked how his team recovered to limit the Bears' hitters. He also said the difference in the later stages of the game was the control starter Kyle Williamson had on the mound that he lacked at the start of the game.

"In the last four innings of the game singles weren't hurting us because we weren't walking three or four an inning," he said.

Williamson walked three batters in the first inning, including bases-loaded walks to Dylan Rhoden and Nick Wren. Robert Abernathy scored Wren with a single and Jacob Wood plated Morey and Rhoden with a double to centerfield to make the score 6-1. Wood scored on the walk to Wren and Skylar Abbott added another run for the Bears in the inning.

Wood also made a couple of key defensive plays in center field to record the final two outs of the game, each time diving to snare the ball in his glove before it could reach the ground.

"He played left field for us in the fall," coach Hill said of Wood. "He's only a sophomore so that may have been a little bit of pressure on him to change positions, but he really stepped up for us today. As a coach, you really appreciate that."

McNeil got the Wildcats an early 1-0 lead after reaching on an infield single and stealing second base. Following a Williamson popout, Tony Shafer doubled to deep center field to drive in the 's first run. game

McNeil finished 2-for-3 with a run scored while Boomer Price went 2-for-2 for Bloomfield.

Hill and Abernathy each led the Bears with two hits.

"I think top to bottom today we hit the ball really well," coach Hill said.