Hagens established career highs with eight strikeouts over seven innings and helped produce South Bend's first shutout of the season Friday as the Silver Hawks beat the Great Lakes Loons, 4-0.

South Bend became the final Midwest League club to keep an opposing lineup down for all nine innings.

Hagens (3-2) was the most significant reason, allowing only two hits and issuing two free passes.

"The main thing was just getting into my rhythm," he said, "and having my off-speed pitches and secondary pitches for strikes. ... It was a fun night to pitch."

The 22-year-old right-hander gave up Leon Landry's leadoff single and Jesse Bosnik's third-inning double but nothing else. He retired the final 12 Loons he faced.

"South Bend got a good starting performance from Hagens," Loons manager John Shoemaker said. "We just didn't put enough pressure on South Bend today and we didn't get enough runners on base. It was a great job by their pitching staff."

In relief, Daniel Taylor walked a batter in the eighth and Christopher Odegaard allowed a leadoff double in the ninth, but both clamped down to finish the game the way Hagens started it.

"I went in the locker room to do a little bit of lifting, but I made sure I came back out there to catch the bottom of the eighth and the bottom of the ninth," Hagens said. "We have had a solid bullpen all year. We have a bullpen we trust."

Hagens (3-2) matched his win total for all of last season at South Bend, where he went 3-6 with a 6.56 ERA in 39 games, working exclusively out of the bullpen. In fact, all of the Denair, Calif., native's first 54 career outings were in relief.

"The organization wanted [the change]," said Hagens, Arizona's sixth-round Draft choice in 2009. "I came into Spring Training as a reliever and, about two weeks into it, they kind of just said, 'We're going to make you into a starter this year.' I was excited because that's what I have always done."

Through 39 innings over eight starts, he's compiled a 3.92 ERA.

"It's just kind of a mind-set, having more of a plan going into the game," said Hagens, who also started games at Merced College. "Just kind of knowing what I want to do for the whole game and not varying from that plan."

Zach Walters paced the Hawks' offense with a first-inning solo shot off Great Lakes starter Garrett Gould (4-1), who allowed two runs over five frames.