SYRACUSE - What happens when a veteran Wawasee softball team meets an inexperienced Manchester team with just three players returning from last year's squad?

Try a 10-0 Wawasee victory with an exclamation point for Jamie Conn's pitching performance.

Conn struck out 10 batters and got by some early control problems to shut down Manchester's bats to the tune of zero hits. At one point she retired nine consecutive batters, six by strikeout and the other three by easy groundouts.

"This is what we expected from her," Wawasee head coach Bo O'Dell said.

On the Manchester side, head coach Jim Troyer left the game shaking his head again. His batters have now struck out 24 times in the past two ball games and have just one hit to show for their efforts.

"We haven't hit the last two games," Troyer said. "One thing we lost from last year was out sticks. They go up thinking they're going to get out and those are the results. They hit in practice off of the pitching machine, but they had trouble seeing the ball out of her hand or something."

Manchester looked as if it might get on the board in the first inning as Jennifer Jester walked to start the game. But she was caught stealing, and Dorey Bungitak struck out. After Megan Sell walked, Jessica Hicks then struck out to end the threat.

Hicks, Manchester's starting pitcher, dodged numerous bullets in the first three innings. Wawasee had a double, a single and a walk in the first, but came away with just one run.

In the second inning, Hicks walked a batter and allowed a single off the bat of Sonya Beer, but the Warriors only got one run across again. And in the third, Sara Frantz doubled, and Megan King singled, but Wawasee went scoreless.

However, in the fourth inning, it all fell apart for the Squires. Wawasee sent 10 players to the plate that inning, plating five of them.

After Hicks walked the leadoff batter, Amy Gingerich walked, and Beer drove home a run with a single. Kari Wortinger followed with a single to load the bases before Manchester got a force out at home for the first out of the inning. With the bases still loaded, Conn stroked a double that scored two runs, and Tara Hymer singled two batters later to drive in two more runs.

When the damage was done, Wawasee led 7-0.

In the fifth inning, the Warriors finished off the game by scoring three runs as Gingerich and Beer singled to start the inning, and Wortinger drove them home with a base hit. Sara Frantz then singled, and Wortinger eventually scored on a throwing error for the final run.

O'Dell saw the problems his team had early in the game getting clutch hits.

"It's difficult to go down to that level of pitching," he said. "There are a lot of pitchers in the NLC that can throw heat, and we've been concentrating on that. It's always hard when you see changeup every pitch to keep the hands back."

Beer, Wortinger and Frantz all ended with three hits as the Warriors pounded out 14 on the game. Beer, Wortinger, Conn and Hymer all had two RBIs to lead Wawasee.

Manchester (1-3) will be at Triton for a doubleheader today at 11 a.m. Wawasee (4-1) will host Warsaw Monday at 4:30 p.m. in an important NLC matchup. [[In-content Ad]]