OLD ORCHARD BEACH — Not a lot of bounces go your way when you start the season 5-10, but the Old Orchard Beach Raging Tide found an opponent that could empathize on Tuesday night, as it hosted the 6-10 Wachusett Dirt Dawgs. In the end, it was the home team that got enough breaks for an elusive win, as the Raging Tide rallied for a 2-1 victory in a Futures Collegiate Baseball League game at The Ballpark in Old Orchard Beach.

The  (6-10) Tide didn’t get too many friendly bounces through much of the game, putting runners on in five of the first six innings, but with no runs to show for it.

A bad break cost the Tide right off the bat in the bottom of the first. Rahiem Cooper led off with a single and quickly stole second. But a hit-an-run turned into a double play, as Cooper was easily into third base when Kyle Mendenhall popped out to (6-11) Wachusett shortstop Kevin Marciano, who only had to casually toss it to second to get Cooper out.

Cooper found himself at second base again in the fourth, after a bunt single and a sacrifice bunt by Mendenhall. But Cooper could get no farther, as Paul McDonough flied out and Cooper became the third out on a fielder’s choice grounder to third.

The Dirt Dawgs took advantage of the Tide’s inability to bring a runner home by scoring the first run of the game in the top of the seventh. Austin Botts led off by reaching on an error by Tide shortstop Kelly Rooney, whose off-target throw put Botts at second. Tony Rallo moved Botts to third on a sacrifice groundout, and Botts came home on a single by Joe Breen.

The unearned run put a damper on a solid performance on the mound by Raging Tide starter Joey Royer, who allowed just five hits over seven innings, with four strikeouts and two walks.

Royer pitched just the way assistant coach Mike Tarry, filling in as manager while Chris Torres is on paternity leave, wanted him to.

“I don’t like walks, Chris doesn’t like walks. Throw strikes; you’ve got good stuff. I don’t want you throwing right over the heart of the plate, but I don’t want you picking the edges all day long, either,” Tarry said before the season, regarding what he wanted from his pitchers. “Challenge the hitters, and get people out.”

The Tide offense couldn’t make amends right off for wasting Royer’s outing, as it went down 1-2-3 in the bottom of the seventh. But an inning later, the offense finally produced.

Skip Flanagan singled leading off the inning, which knocked out reliever Matt Russell. He then moved to second on a Chandler Wagoner groundout. After Rooney walked, Cooper hit into a potential double play to short, but after Rooney was forced out at second, Cooper’s speed was too much to get the out at first.

Mendenhall then singled to plate Flanagan and tie the game, before McDonough doubled home Cooper to give the Tide its winning margin.

The inning epitomized the kind of offense Torres expected from this year’s team, utilizing Cooper and Mendenhall’s speed at the top of the lineup.

“I think we’re going to do well with the speed,” Torres said at the start of the season. “You go back and look at our runs scored (last year), we were right up there in the league, and that’s because we put pressure, we ran, we stole, we bunted. So, hopefully, that works for us again this year with some of the new guys we got.”

Cooper showed off what his manager saw in him from the start of the season, as he finished the game 2-for-4 with a stolen base and a run ”“ an ideal day’s work for a leadoff hitter.

The Tide got a slight scare in the top of the seventh, as Dylan Morrow tried to close out the game. Botts reached again on an error leading off, but Morrow got a pair of groundouts before striking out Michael Rizzitello to end the game.

Morrow, a product of Southern Maine Community College, earned his first save of the season, while Scarborough native Ben Greenberg picked up his first win of the season with a one-hit, scoreless eighth inning.

— Staff Writer Wil Kramlich can be contacted at 282-1535, ext. 323 or [email protected]. Follow him on Twitter @WilTalkSports.