The first five pitches thrown by Johnsburg starting pitcher Peyton Mesce didn’t earn any high-fives.

Woodstock’s Noah Henning drilled Mesce’s first pitch of Tuesday’s Kishwaukee River Conference game at Johnsburg into left-center field for a double that bounced off the fence.

Mesce then did his own drilling, hitting Chace Waterson with his second pitch of the game. Johnsburg’s senior right-hander plunked Sonny Marsalla with the count 3-0 and, in a blink of the eye, the bases were loaded.

“I put it in my spot,” Mesce said of Henning’s leadoff double. “He just got on time and put it in the gap. It’s part of baseball right there. That’s what happens. Sometimes it’s not going to be how you want it to be.”

In the end, it turned out how Mesce wanted it to be.

He pitched five innings of three-hit ball, striking out nine and allowing only one earned run and one walk, as defending KRC champ Johnsburg rolled to a 10-2 win.

Mesce worked out of his first-inning jam without allowing a run, as he struck the next three batters after loading the bases.

“Gave me a heart attack,” Skyhawks coach Eric Toussaint said. “[In the past], he would have lost his mind, and he would have been done. This year, he’s like, ‘All right, refocus. And here we go.’ ”

The win kept Johnsburg (12-6, 5-2) tied for first place in the KRC. Richmond-Burton also improved to 5-2 in the conference after beating Marengo.

“We just got to keep pushing,” Mesce said. “We got to push everyone to their limits as best as we can and not give up on each other so easily.”

Johnsburg pitching coach Ryan Linkletter called a mound meeting after Mesce loaded the bases in the first. That seemed to help the Skyhawks pitcher, even though Linkletter yelled “Figure it out!” to Mesce from the dugout after Mesce missed the strike zone again on a pitch to cleanup hitter Logan Wisner.

“He dialed him in,” Skyhawks catcher Jack Thomson said of Linkletter. “[Mesce] is a competitor so I know he’s going to be able to get us out of the inning, especially in tough situations.”

Mesce retired the side in order in the second, then got the first two batters he faced in the third before hitting Marsalla for the second time. Wisner followed with an RBI triple to get Woodstock (6-6, 4-3) on the board, but by then the visitors had spotted the Skyhawks a 4-0 lead.

“We’ve done a good job in all of our games of coming out right away,” Woodstock coach Ian Rago said. “But when we don’t go with our approach and we chase breaking balls, we know that if we get in strikeouts counts that we’re going to be in trouble.”

Mesce pitched his second 1-2-3 inning in the fourth. Henning doubled again with one out in the fifth and scored on an error. Toussaint pulled Mesce after he threw 91 pitches.

“I figured it out after [loading the bases in the first] and started going after them,” Mesce said. “I started to figure out how to get back into my back leg and drive down off the mound.”

Thompson (two-run single, two-run double), Nate Frost (double), Josh Speer (two doubles, RBI) and Brady Fisher (RBI hit by pitch) each had two hits for Johnsburg. Jacob Smith’s RBI triple, which was misplayed in the outfield, started the scoring in the bottom of the first.

Johnsburg’s Carter Block doubled home a run in the second, and Mesce aided his own cause with an RBI single in the third off Woodstock starter Grady Goglin.

“We got to stay consistent, keep our bats going and just have fun and be prepared for upcoming competition in conference,” Thompson said. “Our goal is definitely to win the conference championship.”

Woodstock’s Max Haggerty, the two-time Northwest Herald Boys Bowler of the Year, relieved Goglin and threw strikes of a different kind.

Haggerty struck out eight Skyhawks in 2⅔ innings.

“Max has done a good job the last couple of times coming out of the bullpen,” Rago said. “He has really good mechanics, and he listens to what’s getting called.”