DOWAGIAC — The rollercoaster season of the Dowagiac softball team continued over the weekend.

The Chieftains dropped a pair of one-run Wolverine Conference games to host Sturgis on Friday before going 2-1 on Saturday at the River Valley Invitational, losing only to the host Mustangs who are ranked No. 5 in Division 4.

By going 2-3 on the weekend, Dowagiac’s record is back to .500 at 15-15.

One of the highlights for the Chieftains came off the bat of freshman Sierra Carpenter, who set a new single-season home run record as she hit No. 8 and No. 9 on Saturday.

Carpenter surpasses Megan Soderbloom, who previously held the record with eight home runs.

“I want to say congratulations to Sierra,” said Dowagiac coach Mike Behnke.

Behnke and the Chieftains continue to seek consistency. Dowagiac has been hitting the ball well most every night, but cannot seem to keep other teams from scoring runs or coming back late in games.

Such was the case last Friday against Sturgis.

The Trojans and Chieftains were deadlocked at 8-8 heading into the bottom of the seventh in the first game.

Dowagiac game up four runs on three hits, two walks and an error.

In the nightcap, the Chieftains gave up five runs in the third inning and then came up short in a comeback bid.

“We had the lead the whole first game and just couldn’t finish the game,” Behnke said. “We had opportunities to score more runs and just couldn’t get that last hit to drive them in and when we needed to make a play on defense in the last two innings we couldn’t. In the second game, we let their pitcher off the hook. She wasn’t overpowering but we continued to get out on our front foot and swing at the first pitch and pop out instead of working the count and getting our timing. These are the little things that added to two losses instead of two wins.”

Against River Valley, a 7-4 loss, Dowagiac got behind early and tried to come back, only to fall short.

“We didn’t play well against River Valley and they took advantage of our defensive lapses to beat it,” Behnke said.

Dowagiac did rebound to defeat Saugatuck 14-1 and Frankfort 9-4.

Dowagiac had 21 hits in those two games, including six for extra base hits.

“We were able to turn it around and play well against Saugatuck and Frankfurt to get two victories,” Behnke said.