Exuding confidence on and off the mound Wednesday night, Neal Dennison said the Lamar baseball team doesn’t rank its pitchers in a No. 1, No. 2 fashion.

But the junior can’t deny he’s becoming more well-known and stepping somewhat out of the shadow of Redskins ace Scott Erzinger.

Dennison was masterful at Leeroy Ashmore Field, striking out 11 and allowing only four hits as Lamar run-ruled Westside 8-0 in a District 20-5A game.

“I’m having a good year and I just hope I can keep it up,” said Dennison, a junior who improved to 5-0. “We don’t think about (No. 1 and No. 2). They just call my name and I go pitch.”

Kevin McKee had three hits and four RBIs to lead Lamar (17-5 overall, 7-1 district), which bounced back from Monday night’s 11-9 loss to Bellaire on the same field and gave coach Mike McGilvray his 500th career win.

McKee drove in the first run of the game with a second-inning single, starting a two-run inning, and smacked a solo home run to left center in the fourth for a 3-0 lead.

Both opposite-field hits came on first-pitch fastballs.

“I was lacking that last year. They were throwing me away a lot and I adjusted and … just started using my hands and hitting it the other way,” McKee said. “It was a pretty good night. (Westside pitcher Michael) Goodnight was throwing good. I was just sitting back trying not to do too much.”

Dennison, who walked two, relied mostly on his curveball and fastball and wasted little time on the mound.

“My curveball worked good early in the count and made my fastball look faster than it really is and I can throw the changeup sometimes,” Dennison said.

“He’s come on so strong this season,” McGilvray said. “It was a typical Neal Dennison outing. He works quick, he throws three pitches for strikes and he has good command. He works fast and the kids love playing behind him because he doesn’t take a lot of time between pitches.”

Goodnight tired in the fifth, surrendering three runs on three hits.

He retired the first two hitters, then Matt Goudeau and Daniel Gonzalez got back-to-back singles and Goodnight walked Marquis Kindle and Andy Maas to force in Lamar’s fourth run.

McKee followed with his third hit, a two-run single to center that made it 6-0.

Lamar ended it in the sixth. Cody Horr led off with a single and Anthony Rendon walked before Goudeau launched a two-run triple to left that was completely lost by the left fielder, invoking Houston ISD’s eight-after-six mercy rule.

Westside fell to 17-2 overall and 7-2 in the district. Both losses have been to Lamar.

“(Monday) was a tough loss and we had to come back and respond,” McKee said. “We came out and did what we needed to do.”

More on 500

McGilvray, who won a state title at The Woodlands in 2000 and coached current Chicago Cubs closer Kerry Wood at Grand Prairie, gave the standard answer when asked what his 500th win meant personally.

“It just means I’ve been doing it a long time and I’ve had a lot of great kids to coach,” said McGilvray, who came to Lamar out of retirement three years ago. “We were disappointed after Monday night and the kids came back and played a great game tonight.

“I’ve been blessed.”

McGilvray is at least the second 20-5A coach to earn a landmark victory this year. In separate games in the span of a week in late February and early March, Bellaire’s Rocky Manuel earned his 500th win at the school and 800th overall.

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