ONEKAMA — After taking a generous leadoff from first base, Thomas Koon was forced to eat some dirt while diving back to the bag.

As the Onekama senior stood up to dust himself, assistant coach Ken Franklin yelled from the dugout.

“Thomas, your job is to pitch,” he yelled. “Take it easy.” Koon smiled, probably because he was doing his job quite well.

Koon threw 8 2/3 shutout innings as the Portagers swept a doubleheader against Brethren on Thursday to clinch a second straight West Michigan D League title.

“He’s an outstanding young man and an outstanding pitcher,” Onekama coach John Neph said of Koon. “We’re glad we got him back this year.”

The Portagers (16-8, 12-0 WMD) won the opener by mercy rule in five innings, 11-0, and took the nightcap, 10-1, to stay unbeaten in league play with two games left.

“I’m very happy,” Neph said. “This is a good group of guys to work with. They’ve worked very hard and kept getting better as the season went on.”

Koon, who didn’t walk a batter in either game, scattered two hits and struck out six in five shutout innings to open the doubleheader.

“I had the guys behind me helping me out, that helps,” Koon said. “We hit the ball a little bit better, but we still need to work on that.”

The Portagers scored two runs in the first, one in the second, then blew the game open with five in the third en route to the win. Roddy MacNeil pitched the first three innings for the Bobcats (11-12-1, 7-3 WMD), while Dalton Lakso threw the final two.

“Brethren is an outstanding team,” Neph said. “We’re fortunate we got some runs off of Roddy early.”

Rory Russell and Devon Nelson each picked up a hit for the Bobcats in the opener.

Dan Gillespie went 3-for-3 with two RBIs to lead the Portagers, Jared Miller went 3-for-3 with an RBI, Koon was 2-for-2 and drove in three runs while Kevin O’Connor, Bryce Reckow and Joe Eno each had a hit.

Just before the start of the nightcap, a number of Portagers were reminding their teammates that they had a chance to clinch the league title with another win.

Onekama responded quickly with two runs in the first inning, paced by a double from Koon and an RBI single by O’Connor.

“I think we’re just seeing the ball better,” Koon said of Onekama’s hitting in the series.

Brethren cut the deficit in half as Russell singled and scored on a double by MacNeil. From there, it was all Onekama.

The Portagers scored three in the third, starting with an RBI triple by Miller, then added three more in the fourth as Miller plated two runs with another triple.