As great a season as it’s been for the Joliet West baseball team, they entered this week’s series against Plainfield East with a bit of a sour taste in their mouth.

A 10-3 loss to Lockport on April 29 was followed by a 3-2 upset loss to Romeoville the day after. The Tigers had won eight of nine prior to that skid and they were eager to get back on track.

They did a bit more than that against the Bengals.

After beating Plainfield East in competitive contests Tuesday and Wednesday, Joliet West left no room for doubt in a 13-0, five-inning victory on Thursday. The win gave the Tigers a three-game sweep.

Joliet West (19-7-1) also moves to 11-1 in Southwest Prairie Conference play with only two weeks left in the regular season. It was a heck of an effort ahead of a Saturday contest with Lincoln-Way East and their three-game series against Plainfield Central next week.

“Guys just strung hits together,” coach John Karczewski said. “The biggest key was Sean Hogan getting a bunt down early in the third inning and moving runners over...Guys really relaxed at the plate with two strike hits and we were talking about that earlier in the day.

“We struggled the past two games with guys in scoring position and today we came through in those situations which was great to see.”

Thursday’s effort was led by the pitching of Keegan Schwarting, who has been having a dominant season this year. Schwarting finished with three strikeouts Thursday while allowing just one walk and one hit.

The Tigers finished 13 hits, with Bobby Malinowski (2 for 2, two RBIs) and Michael Murphy (2 for 3, one RBI) each putting up two.

“Honestly once we get back-to-back hits we usually get rolling and don’t stop,” Malinowski said. “We love when Keegan pitches, too, man, he just dominates the mound. The more he pitches the better he gets.”

Malinowski got the scoring started in the bottom of the second with a RBI single to score Henry Young. That put the Tigers up 1-0.

Joliet West struck again in the third. Andrew Markun singled on a line drive to right field, scoring Daniel Lukancic and Brayden Meyers to extend the advantage to 3-0 with one out.

The same inning saw Murphy single to score Young and stretch it to 4-0.

The run continued in the fourth inning with Myers’ double scoring Lukancic just before Sean Hogan’s single scored Myers. It became 7-0 when Malinowski’s RBI single sent Travis Skole home the next at-bat.

Marco Rodriguez jr. moved the Tigers closer to the end with a two-run RBI double two at-bats later that scored Markun and Malinowski.

Isaac Harris made it 11-0 on a two-run RBI single that scored Murphy and Rodriguez the next at bat. Jacob Prosise later made the score 13-0 on a single to score Harris and Skole with two outs to give the game its final score.

Plainfield East (11-13) has now lost six of their last seven, including four in a row. They lost the first game to Joliet West 8-5 and the second game 6-3.

Plainfield East has a one-off game against Sandburg on Saturday before a series against Romeoville next week. That series could be critical to getting the Bengals back on track.

“It just comes down to playing a little bit of defense,” coach Ken Holowczak said. “You have to support the guy on the mound. You can’t keep giving a team six outs in an inning and expect bad things not to happen. You have to go pick up the baseball. That’s on us, but we’ll be back on Saturday and hopefully get it done.”