ANDERSON — Anderson Hockett’s first baseball game Saturday in its own Holiday Tournament wasn’t exactly reflective of its season to this point. Or maybe it was.

Hockett Post 127 fell behind 5-0 after the first inning of the game at Memorial Field, and still trailed 11-6 entering the seventh inning of its game against Mishawaka Post 161. That’s when Hockett rallied for five runs to force extra innings.

Although Hockett eventually lost 12-11 in eight innings, few players were surprised that the squad rallied. Its high-powered offense is a main reason the team owns a 13-2 record, not counting Saturday night’s game against Bristol, which ended too late for publication.

“We can score the runs to compete with anybody,” said pitcher Zach Tumulty, a Daleville junior. “We’re pretty solid everywhere. We’ve got good defense, and everybody’s solid.”

Longtime Hockett coach John Miles said he believes his team is good enough to make a deep run in the state tournament, set to begin later this month. He coached the 1998 team, which won the state title.

“This team, when sectional comes around, we’ll be ready,” said Miles, who began hosting the Holiday Tournament in 1988. “We’ve got a lot of hustle, we’ve got good hitters, and I think that up the middle, we have one of the strongest teams in the state.”

Miles said that the lineup he had against Mishawaka would likely be the team’s regular starting nine. It featured Anderson High School players Zach Gooding, Andrew Hollon and Daniel Puckett, Highland standouts Joey Hart and Brady Roundtree, Class 2A state runner-up Elwood stars Troy Worsley and Darren Jones and Pendleton Heights players Nate Clem and Ben Cronk.

“Our depth helps a lot,” Hart said. “We score 11 or 12 runs a game, and that makes it real easy on our pitchers. They can just come out and throw strikes.”

While Hockett allowed 12 runs Saturday against Mishawaka, the offense wasn’t lacking. Roundtree, Jones and Cronk each had two hits, while Roundtree drove in two runs. Gooding, Worsley, Hollon, Hart and Cronk each drove in a run as well.

Saturday’s loss made Hockett 1-1 in the Holiday Tournament, with two more games scheduled for today. Hockett will face Bristol again at 10:30 a.m., and will play Muncie at approximately 6 p.m.

Roundtree said the team was using the Holiday Tournament as preparation for the state tournament.

“This is a chance to play a lot of really talented teams that we otherwise wouldn’t get to play,” Roundtree said. “We expect to come back in games like this, and we want to go as far as possible (in the state tournament).”