The Dowagiac baseball team swept a Wolverine Conference doubleheader from Paw Paw on Tuesday by surviving a 4-3 opener before blasting the Redskins 13-4 nightcap.

Dowagiac (11-11, 11-6) seniors played an important role in the first game as Zac Hyatt knocked in a pair of base runners with two doubles and then saved the game on the mound for Jason Turner with a deuce of strikeouts in the final inning. Turner sent nine Redskins back to the bench with three strikes in his six innings of mound duty for the victory and also hit two singles.

Aaron Blaske also had an important sacrifice fly for the Chiefs.

Paw Paw (10-16, 4-12) took a 1-0 lead in the third inning for sophomore Justin McCauley, who had only one run charged to him in the defeat.

“The whole season errors have hurt us extremely hard and a few mental mistakes in the outfield cost us the first game,” noted Paw Paw coach Derek Vanderburg. “The little things with this young team are hurting us, but I am excited about the future with these guys.”

An error started the second game for Paw Paw and Dowagiac capitalized by scoring eight unearned runs on junior Ben Stieber, with Hyatt again knocking a pair of base runners across the plate with a double. Classmate Michael Pranschke also got a big hit with a triple to the center field fence.

Sophomore Cal Cox was hurt by an error in the first as the Redskins scored three times to cut the first inning lead to 8-3 with only one run being charged to Cox.

The Chiefs scored five times in the sixth inning for a 13-3 advantage, but a mental mistake miscue by Dowagiac in the bottom of the stanza allowed the game to finish the required seven innings.

Cox allowed seven hits in his seven innings of pitching and struck out eight batters and was helped by senior Chad Gravatt with a two-run triple in the top of the sixth.

“The first game was really nice and life was easier with an eight run lead in the second game, but was really pleased with Cal’s pitching and Zac had some big hits,” mentioned Dowagiac coach Fred Bournay. “All of games are preparing us for next week, so we are getting there in a good way with the kids having fun.”

Only four of the 17 runs for the Chiefs were earned, but the hosts outhit Paw Paw by a 14-13 margin in the two games.

“Dowagiac has good pitching and are aggressive at the plate and do what they need to do to win,” concluded Vanderburg.

First Game

Paw Paw 001 002 0 – 3 6 2

Dowagiac 000 031 x – 4 5 3

Jason Turner (W), Zac Hyatt (save) and Brett Scanlon

Justin McCauley and Cisco Posada

2B: Zac Hyatt (D) 2

Second Game

Dowagiac 800 005 0 – 13 9 1

Paw Paw 300 001 0 – 4 7 3

Cal Cox and Brett Scanlon

Ben Stieber and Cisco Posada, Justin McCauley (3)

2B: Zac Hyatt (D), Marquis Gill (PP)

3B: Michael Pranschke (D), Chad Gravatt (D)

Varsity records: Paw Paw 10-16, 4-12 Wolverine; Dowagiac 11-11, 11-6 Wolverine