Warren pushed three runs across in the bottom of the first inning and Tanner Stanz turned in a dominant performance on the mound as the Dragons evened their overall record with a 5-1 win over Harbor Creek Wednesday at Old Legion Field.

Warren now finds itself in a three-way tie for first place in the Region 7 standings with Harbor Creek and General McLane. McLane beat the Dragons last week, but lost to Harbor Creek to eliminate the tiebreaker.

“We came right out and had some good at-bats early on,” said Warren coach Rick Eaton. “(Harbor Creek’s Isaac Mattson) is as good of a pitcher as you’ll see in District 10, and with Stanz going we knew it’d be a low scoring game. It was a much needed win.”

Austin Schwanke gave the offense a kick-start with a one-out double in the bottom of the first, and came around to score on a Matt Hultquist single two batters later. A groundball by designated hitter Derek Reagle was misplayed by the Huskies’ shortstop allowing Stanz to score, and Ryan Gustafson singled home Hultquist to give the Dragons a three-run advantage.

That score held until the bottom of the fifth, when Warren tacked on a pair thanks to an RBI fielder’s choice by Jason Stanton and a run-scoring double by Reagle to make it 5-0.

Patrick Brennan doubled home a run for Harbor Creek in the sixth, but the Dragons were able to work out of the inning without further damage.

Stanz went six innings to pick up his second win of the year, striking out 11 batters and allowing only four hits. Tanner Teconchuk struck out two in a scoreless seventh to shut the door for Warren (3-3, 2-1).

Offensively, the Dragons racked up eight hits led by a 2-for-3 day from Hultquist. Stanz went 1-for-2 with a walk while Schwanke, Stanton, Reagle, Gustafson, and Teconchuk were each 1-for-3.

Brennan went 3-for-3 at the plate for the Huskies.

The Dragons look to make it two-in-a-row on Thursday, hosting Girard in a Region 7 game at Old Legion Field.

HARBOR CREEK (1): Fife, 1b, 2-1-0-0, Needham, rf, 2-0-0-0, Burnett, ph, 1-0-0-0, Brennan, c, 3-0-3-1, Mattson, p-rf, 3-0-0-0, Shotts, lf, 3-0-1-0, Kaschalk, cf, 3-0-0-0, Carr, 2b, 3-0-0-0, Rutkowski, ss, 3-0-0-0, Passmore, 3b, 1-0-0-0, Blakney, ph, 1-0-0-0. Team 22-1-4-1.

WARREN (5): Fantaskey, ss-2b, 4-0-0-0, Schwanke, cf, 3-1-1-0, Stanz, p-ss, 2-1-1-0, DeLattre, pr, 0-1-0-0, Hultquist, 3b, 3-0-2-1, Bradley, pr, 0-1-0-0, Stanton, 1b, 3-1-1-1, Fasenmyer, c, 0-0-0-0, Reagle, dh, 3-0-1-1, Gustafson, rf, 3-0-1-1, Teconchuk, 2b, 3-0-1-0, Vile, pr, 0-0-0-0, White, lf, 1-0-0-0, Retterer, ph, 1-0-0-0. Team 26-5-8-4.

Harbor Creek 000 001 0 – 1 4 1

Warren 300 020 x – 5 8 1

2B-Brennan (H), Schwanke (W), Reagle (W). WP-Stanz. LP-Mattson.