Throwing six shutout innings is a memorable day for any baseball pitcher. Couple that with the game-winning hit and, as Pioneer High School's Will Nimke puts it, "you can't ask for much more than that."

Nimke drove in the only run of Pioneer's 1-0 victory in the first game of doubleheader sweep of visiting Detroit Catholic Central on Tuesday afternoon. The Pioneers won the second game, 6-3.

"It felt good," said Nimke, who blanked the Shamrocks on three hits, no walks and two strikeouts. "I hadn't really hit so far this season, and it was good to start off this game with two big hits and a good game pitching."

Nimke's day was highlighted in the fourth inning. After coaxing Catholic Central into three straight groundouts from the mound, he stepped to the plate four batters into Pioneer's at-bat and drove in James Strickland from third base with an RBI single.

More MLive.com coverage: This Story & Photo Gallery | Game 1 boxscore | Game 2 boxscore

"I thought Will Nimke threw an outstanding ballgame," said Pioneer coach Jerry Holley. "We had opportunities to break it open, and he kept us right there with throwing great pitches and keeping them off-balance."

Although it was the Pioneers' only offense, it was all they needed. Alex Kinch slammed the door on the Shamrocks in the seventh, striking out two of the four batters he face.

"We made them put the ball in play," noted Holley. "And our defense is what I've said all along. I thought we were going to be pretty good defensively."

Holley's sentiment rang true in the second game, as well.

Once again, Strickland was the first to cross the plate for Pioneer. This game, however, he had company.

A.J. Ross drove in Strickland with a single in the bottom of the second. Strickland added an RBI double in the third, scoring Travis Maezes, who knocked a double of his own, to put Pioneer up 2-0.

"In the second game we finally woke up the bats and started hitting," said Nimke.

The hitting reached an apex in the fourth, initiated by a Kinch single. Three batters later, lead-off man Justin Sherman singled, driving in Kinch. Nimke followed with an RBI groundout before Maezes roped an RBI triple to open space in right-centerfield. Maezes went 3-for-4 with a single, double and triple.

Maezes came up a home run short of hitting for the cycle, but Kinch got one for himself when he cleared the left field fence in the fifth inning.

"We can hit the ball a little better, but we got better at-bats the second game than we did the first game, and that was good," said Holley. "Some guys aren't hitting the ball right now, but I know they are going to hit the ball (eventually), so I'm feeling pretty good about that."

Meanwhile, the Pioneer (3-0) defense -- behind five innings pitched from Scheel and two from Strickland -- never let the Shamrocks get anything easy at the plate. The only significant blemish on the Pioneers' stat sheet came in the top of the seventh, when Catholic Central scored two runs after Pioneer throwing errors.

Scheel got into trouble in the third, but pitched his way out of a jam with a runner on second and third. He gave up one unearned run in the inning. He struck out three, allowed three hits and didn't walk a batter while earning the win.

"I'm very, very happy with how we played pitching-wise and defensive-wise," said Holley.

Reiterated Nimke, "Pitching and defense are definitely our strengths. Our hitting will come around."