DECATUR — The Dowagiac baseball team earned another split Monday afternoon.

The Chieftains dropped a 5-3 decision to host Decatur in the first game, but rallied to win the nightcap 5-3.

Dowagiac used three pitchers who had never thrown a varsity pitch before and a fourth one that has one game under his belt.

Despite giving up eight runs and a lot of walks, first-year Dowagiac coach Bob Turner was pretty pleased with the team’s effort.

“It doesn’t sound like it because we had 10 walks, but we didn’t pitch that bad. We had three kids who had never thrown in a varsity game before. It wasn’t nice to see all the walks, but we battled and we got outs. The defense played well behind us.”

Dean Klann took the loss in the opening game.

Dowagiac got doubles from Brett Scanlon and Logan Pellow.

In the nightcap, Brody Froehlich was a winner in his debut with relief help from Scanlon.

Pellow had an RBI for the Chieftains, who had just two hits — one each from Matt Smith and Tony Brooks.

Dowagiac was scheduled to play Niles today, but that game has been canceled and will not be made up.

First game

Dowagiac 201 000 0 — 3 5 2

Decatur 210 20 x — 5 3 4

Dean Klann (L, 0-1), Nate Lindsey (6) and Brett Scanlon; Stephen Botti (W) and Max Drenth

2B: Theodore Rufo (DEC), Scanlon (DOW), Logan Pellow (DOW)

Second game

Dowagiac 010 400 0 — 5 2 1

Decatur 020 010 0 — 3 4 3

Brody Froehlich (W, 1-0), Brett Scanlon (6) and Scanlon and Cal Cox (6); T.J. Stambek (L) and Max Drenth

Varsity record

Dowagiac 2-2