Winner, winner, steak dinner.

That’s what Joliet West baseball coach John Karczewski told pitcher Keegan Schwarting following the Tigers’ 10-1 Southwest Prairie Conference win over Plainfield South on Thursday.

What Schwarting did to earn the reward was a rare feat indeed. In the top of the first inning, the Tigers’ right-hander retired the Cougars on three pitches. All three Plainfield South hitters swung at the first pitch, resulting in a popup to first and two grounders to second. Three pitches, three outs, one steak.

“I told Keegan after the game I am buying him a steak dinner for that,” Karczewski said. “He may never have an inning like that in his life. That was amazing.”

Schwarting was amazing throughout, but especially in the early going. Thanks to his quick first inning and several quick ones after, Schwarting had only thrown 40 pitches through five innings and allowed just one baserunner, a one-out double by Michael Holmes in the top of the fourth. He finished with a complete game, throwing 82 pitches and allowing four hits and one run while striking out five.

“That first inning, I’ve never seen that before,” Schwarting said. “It kind of set the tone for us for the whole day. My job when I go to the mound is to throw strikes. Our defense is very good and they made some amazing plays behind me today. When they do that, I know I can just throw strikes, let the defense work and not have to worry about striking everybody out.

“All of my pitches were working today - fastball, curve, slider, changeup. I might not be overpowering, but I throw strikes with all my pitches and that can be hard to hit. And, I know our offense is going to come through with some runs.”

The first run for the Tigers (13-5-1, 5-0) came in the bottom of the first on a sacrifice fly by Henry Young that scored Daniel Lukancic, who reached on an error and went to third on a double by Brayden Myers (3 for 3, double, 3 RBIs).

West gave Schwarting a much larger cushion by scoring four runs in both the second and third innings to take a 9-0 lead.

In the second, Myers singled in a pair of runs, while a dropped fly ball in left by South allowed two more to score.

In the third, Joliet West got back-to-back doubles by Andrew Markun and Bobby Malinowski, followed by RBI singles from Marco Rodriguez, Jr. and Isaac Harris. Rodriguez, who was running on the pitch, scored all the way from first on Harris’ single. Harris then stole second and third during Lukancic’s walk and courtesy runner Colin Horvath stole second before Myers delivered an RBI single to score Harris.

“After falling behind them 8-1 yesterday, it was nice to be up early,” Myers said. “The biggest difference is that we continue to play for each other. We have a closeness and a brotherhood on this team that’s not like any other team I have been on. We’re able to shake off mistakes and stay loose and have fun.

“The past couple of weeks, I have been kind of streaky at the plate. Today, I tried to go up there with a clear mind and just play for the moment. If I didn’t do well, just push it out of my mind and do better next time.”

The Cougars (3-10, 1-3) scored their lone run in the top of the sixth. With two outs, Cameron Kelliher singled, Holmes walked and Matthew Rogers singled to score Kelliher. South got a single from pinch-hitter Nathan Caldwell in the top of the seventh, but Schwarting retired the next three to end the game.

West’s final run came on a home run to center by Young in the bottom of the sixth.

“In our losses, we have fallen behind early,” Plainfield South coach Keith Halverson said. “And a lot of times it has been either inefficient pitching or errors in the field. Our pitchers [Michael Baetzel and Connor Vicek] threw pretty well. When we made an error in the field, they jumped on it and scored some runs.

“It boils down to doing the little things right. Communicating in the field, throwing to the right base, not giving up extra outs. When you do the little things right, the big things take care of themselves, and that’s what we need to keep working on.”