POCATELLO — As Elias Blackhawk walked off the field after stranding two Twin Falls runners to end the top of the third Tuesday at Halliwell Park, the Pocatello Rebels pitcher was greeted by the familiar strains of the Backstreet Boys’ “I Want It That Way” coming from the dugout — or, more accurately, from the group of kids hanging off the front of the dugout, celebrating their pitcher with a little impromptu karaoke.

The Rebels kept up the chatter for the rest of their blowout 22-0 win over Twin Falls, showing the chemistry that coach Chris Seckel says has come together faster than on any team he’s ever coached.

“It was weird,” said Ethan Ellis, who had four hits and drove in eight. “I’m one of the older kids, and I wasn’t expecting to come in and feel like a team. ... We came together and just became brothers so quick.”

That kind of tight-knit team usually comes from a group of players that have been together for a while, but the Rebels are built out of three distinct groups.

Seckel has three rising freshmen who have been playing together for years, six rising sophomores who have done the same, and five older players — including Ellis, who’ll be a senior at Highland in the fall — who have played for him in the past.

Getting those groups on the same page is something that started before the Rebels even threw their first pitch.

“The night of tryouts, I sent a group text out, and before we had our first practice, they were already out doing stuff together,” Seckel said. “It was kind of neat. They were texting back and forth on who’s who, because they just found all the numbers on the text, but by the time they to our first practice, they had already been out together.”

The diverse roster has worked well for the Rebels, who moved to 12-8 with a doubleheader sweep of Twin Falls after winning the second game 13-3.

They’ve beaten the Razorbacks, traditionally Pocatello’s more experienced Single-A team, and only a late rally by the Razorbacks, who scored six runs in the seventh for an 11-9 win, kept them from the championship game at the Pocatello Wood Bat Classic in June.

Because of their youth, the Rebels are generally facing older competition every time they step on the field.

That’s led to some fast growth for the younger players, some of whom haven’t even stepped foot in a high school hallway yet.

“I was petrified of going to play with these older kids,” said Alex Winn, a rising freshman at Pocatello. “First practice, first game, all of it. It’s all been nerve-wracking. ... But then it turned out to be really good, and we’ve bonded together.”

Seckel said that, despite nerves, the youngsters have more than held their own.

Blackhawk, another rising freshman, bounced back from the third-inning jam to complete a five-inning no-hitter against an overmatched Twin Falls lineup in the first game Tuesday.

“It’s really impressed me, because usually those younger kids struggle,” Seckel said, “but these younger kids that are coming up, you can tell that they’ve been coached well to this point, so it makes my life a lot easier. They seem to know the game already. ... At first I was kind of worried about it, but we just put them out there, and they don’t know that they’re not going to high school yet. They just go play.”

That, along with the chemistry and the success they’ve had already this season, has Seckel thinking big as far as the rest of the year is concerned.

“Usually the Rebels are a bunch of younger kids,” Seckel said. “Our job is to get them ready to go to the next level in our program, so, like, the Razorbacks or the AA (Runnin’ Rebels), but they’re winning ballgames, so our goal now is to actually get these guys to state. They keep winning, they might have a chance to compete at the state tournament this year. That’s our goal.”

POCATELLO REBELS 22, TWIN FALLS A 0 (5)

Twin Falls 000 00 — 0 0 7

Pocatello 3(11)4 4x — 22 18 5

Pocatello — WP: Elias Blackhawk. 2B: Ethan Ellis 3, Alex Winn.

POCATELLO REBELS 13, TWIN FALLS A 3 (6)

Twin Falls 010 200 — 3 2 5

Pocatello 111 415 — 13 7 3

Pocatello — WP: Austin Hansen. 2B: Ian Hershey, Kaden Knowles. 3B: Ethan Ellis.