The St. Joseph Variety Show was last weekend. The Tanner Riley Show was Tuesday.

Riley pitched five strong innings as the St. Joseph Flyers beat the Sciotoville East Tartans 8-1 to open the baseball season.

Riley struck out 11, walked one and gave up East’s only hit. Justin Mahlmeister pitched the final two innings.

“Tanner was really sharp. He was hitting spots, had good velocity and was getting his breaking ball over,” said Flyers’ coach Greg Bryant.

“I was worried about the four-day layoff because of the Variety Show. We hit the ball pretty well and we were getting our leadoff guy on and that made it easier.”

The Flyers got a run in the first inning on a singled by Payton Blair. Levi Hopkins’ sacrifice and Riley’s sacrifice fly.

Another run scored in the second on a hit by Cody Blackburn, two wild pitches and an error on a ball hit by Anthony Whaley.

St. Joseph made it 4-0 in the third on a double by T.J. Young and singles by Joseph Unger and Mahlmeister.

The lead went to 7-0 in the fourth.

Blair doubled, took third on a wild pitch, Hopkins walked and Riley grounded out for a run. Young was safe on an error, stole second, and Mahlmeister had a two-run single.

The final run came home in the fifth. Whaley singled, Blair reached on an error and Riley singled.

Sciotoville 000 000 1 = 1 1 2

St. Joseph 112 310 x = 8 11 3

J. Phillips, Crager (4) and T. Taylor. Tanner Riley, Justin Mahlmeister (6) and Justin Mahlmeister, T.J. Young (6). W-Riley (11-K, 1-BB, 1-H, 0-R). L-Phillips. 2B-St. Joseph: Payton Blair, T.J. Young. Hitting-East: Crager 1-4; St. Joseph: Payton Blair 2-4, Tanner Riley 1-3, T.J. Young 1-3, Joseph Unger 2-4, Justin Mahlmeister 2-4, Cody Blackburn 2-3, Anthony Whaley 1-2.