Twin brothers Case and Caden Christensen handled the pitching, a balanced attack led by Brock Enerson’s two-hit, three-RBI day contributed to the hitting, and the Gardner-South Wilmington baseball team avenged a regular-season loss and captured the Class 1A Dwight Regional championship Saturday, 6-1 over the host Trojans.

“Great team win overall,” said Case Christensen, who earned the pitching win allowing one run over four innings before fellow right-hander Caden Christensen, his twin brother, came on and recorded three scoreless innings to notch the save.

“Earlier in the year, we gave up four runs in the first inning and [Dwight] only beat us 7-3, so that showed us it was only that one inning, those four runs. We came out today, hit the ball, me and my twin pitched really well, and we stopped them at only one run.”

Gardner-South Wilmington – a regional champion for the first time since 2014 – will return to the scene of Saturday’s victory for the Class 1A Dwight Sectional. The Panthers (19-12) open Wednesday against Armstrong (20-3).

Dwight (22-15) led 1-0 through four innings thanks to Asher Kargle’s bloop single into shallow right scored Jacob Wilkey and a strong start from right-hander Evan Cox (4⅔ IP, 4 R, 1 ER, 6 H, 0 BB, 7 K). A two-error top of the fifth, however, opened the door for GSW to plate four runs – a misplayed Case Christensen grounder with two outs allowing the eventual winning run to come home.

“That’s happened here recently where we have one mistake and it just kind of snowballs, and what could have been wasn’t,” Dwight coach Jerry McDowell said. “Gardner played really well today. They hit the ball, they got clutch, two-out hits, they outhit us. We beat them earlier in the season, but, boy, they turned the tide today. ...

“Hopefully we’ll learn from it, the underclassmen, and come back and do a little better. But yeah, I’m happy with the season we had, 22 wins.”

After Kargle’s Texas leaguer drove home the Trojans’ lone run in the bottom of the fourth to make it 1-0, Owen Vitko and Tysen Sorenson started off the fateful top of the fifth with singles. Cameron Gray, who entered the game as a pinch hitter in the third and finished with two hits, singled in Vitko to tie it and put runners on the corners with nobody out.

Cox almost worked his way out of the jam, though, picking off Gray and notching a strikeout to get to two outs before the error on Case Christensen’s ground ball scored the go-ahead run and opened the door for more. Caden Christensen singled, then Enerson delivered a two-run single to center to make it 4-1.

“They’ve been doing it all year, those guys at the top of the order,” Panthers coach Allan Wills said. “The bottom part got on for us, we made that miscue on the bases, but then we came up big. ...

“Everyone contributed, whether it was on the mound or on defense or at the plate. I couldn’t be more proud of all of them. It’s just a great, great team win for us.”

With the lead suddenly in hand, Wills sent Case Christensen (4 IP, 1 ER, 4 H, 2 BB, 2 K) from the mound to behind the plate and handed the ball to Caden Christensen. Nine outs away from his program’s first regional title in a dozen years, Caden Christensen (3 IP, 0 R, 1 H, 1 BB, 5 K) allowed just two baserunners – neither reached second base – to close out the save for himself and the win for his brother.

Case had no worries handing the ball and the freshly taken lead to Caden.

“100%,” Case Christensen said. “I have a lot of confidence in him, both as my brother and as probably our ace. And I love catching, so I don’t mind going back there and catching him.”

Wednesday’s Dwight Sectional semifinals will be a doubleheader, with Clifton Central playing Gibson City-Melvin-Sibley at 2 p.m. followed by GSW vs. Armstrong.