MAYVILLE — Chautauqua Lake opened up their baseball season with a big win against Panama, 8-2, in a Section VI non-league baseball game, at Chautauqua Lake High School on Thursday. Kyler Majka was on the mound for the Thunderbirds and he was lights out in getting the win.

The Thunderbirds got out to an early lead scoring in both the first and third inning to get a 2-0 lead. The offense was not what the Thunderbirds had going in the beginning, but rather it was their star pitcher. Majka went five innings, giving up only two hits and no runs, while striking out an impressive 12 batters.

“Kyler did what an ace does,” said Chautauqua Lake head coach Bryan Bongiovanni. “He [Majka] kept us in the game until our bats woke up.”

The Thunderbirds offense heated up in the fifth where they added three more runs, then another three came in the sixth. The leading performers for the T’birds were Cody Triana who went 2-3 with a double and an RBI, Noah Webb went 1-3 with a two RBI double and Majka went 1-2 and scored four of the Thunderbird runs.

Chautauqua Lake (1-0) will open up their league play on Monday when they host Dunkirk.

“To get a win early in the season is very important,” said Coach Bongiovanni. “It was cold, but nice to get the rust off. Great to start on a positive note going into our league play.”