Jamie Glenn/Daily Mining Gazette Rajala’s Kitchen’s Brycyn Nettell delivers a pitch during a Portage Lake Little League Minors game Wednesday at Veterans Field in South Range.

SOUTH RANGE — The conditions were just right for Portage Lake Little League Minors baseball Wednesday at Veterans Field in South Range as Rajala’s Kitchens cruised to a 15-3 win over Auto Pro Glass and Tire Wednesday.

Rajala’s Kitchens (4-1 overall) started things off with three runs. Connor Helminen scored one off a pop up to center from Brycyn Nettell, who then slid home off a dropped ball to jump ahead early 3-0.

Another dropped ball in the bottom of the second inning gave Gavin Larson an opportunity to slide home and pull Auto Pro (2-2 overall) back into the game at 3-1.

Rajala’s had bases loaded in the top of the third and scored two runs off of dropped balls giving Helminen and Blake Heltunen a chance to score as part of what ended up being a five-run outburst. In between, Drew Larson, Nettell and Max Nordstrom all scored.

“It was a well played game with us hitting the ball,” said Rajala’s Kitchens manager Bruce Heltunen. “(It was) our best hitting game of the (season). Every player was on base once throughout the game.

“We had four kids with three hits each and two pitchers came in and pitched for us (in) Drew Larson and Brycyn Nettell (who) also had a triple and three RBIs. It was a well-played game.”

Ensio Anderson and Max Sidortson both walked and later scored for Auto Pro as they responded in the bottom of the third inning off a line drive to left from Peter Heinonen, cutting the advantage down to 8-3.

That was as close as Auto Pro would get, however, as Rajala’s Kitchens racked up another seven runs in the fifth.

Larson, Nettell, Nordstrom, Blake Heltunen and Rylan Guilbault all scored before Carter Wuori and Paige Nettell both scored to close out the scoring.

Auto Pro manager Bruce Larson saw this game as a learning opportunity for his young team and looks forward to their next game in Calumet.

“It was a rough one for us,” he said. “When the balls were hit to us, we made errors.

“A little wild pitching and not a lot of positives came out of the game, but we’ll shake it off and next game we’ll do a better job.”

“Our next game is going to be up in Calumet against the Keweenaw team and we’re going to forget about this one and we’re going to stay postive,” said Larson.