Tiger Baseball Team Shuts Out Rival Wawasee, Stays Perfect In NLC
July 28, 2016 at 4:25 p.m.
Will Shepherd wants his team to be known for not giving up runs.
The eighth-year Warsaw baseball skipper can rest assured the reputation is building.
With a 4-0 win over visiting Northern Lakes Conference rival Wawasee Wednesday, the Tigers haven't given up a run in 15 innings, as a result remain perfect in conference play.
"This game really is big," Shepherd said. "It always is when it's against a rival. We wanted to keep our momentum going, and they wanted to take it away from us. We want to be established as a team that doesn't give up runs."
Picking up their sixth straight win - something that took less than two hours Wednesday - the Tigers not only beat heavy rain storms but also improved to 12-2 overall and 6-0 in the NLC.
On an afternoon when lightning flashed in the distance, it was a pair of thunderous blasts by the Tigers that ignited the home crowd.
After senior rightfielder Zack Smith's long drive was caught at the wall to start the second inning, classmate Berto Nunez, batting in the No. 6 spot, stepped in and broke a scoreless tie with a solo home run over the leftfield fence.
Junior right-handed pitcher Mark Sherman, ninth in the Tigers' batting order, then helped his own cause when he started Warsaw's half of the third inning with a solo home run that made it 2-0.
"The ball really carries at this ball park," Wawasee coach John Blunk said. "It doesn't matter what time of the year you play here. Warsaw hit the ball hard and put them out there."
In all, the Tigers pounded out eight hits, while striking out only twice and walking once.
"I think we're a pretty good hitting club," Shepherd said. "Our batters are adjusting more as pitchers are throwing more off-speed stuff. We're not making huge strides, but we're getting better every day. We hit the ball deep a couple times today, but I thought Jon Dingeldein did a good job of changing speed. He never let us get away from him, never really let us take control."
Dingeldein took the loss for Wawasee, dropping his pitching record to 1-5, but only gave up two earned runs. The Warriors were troubled by three fielding errors, including two on one play that allowed a Tiger run to come across.
Sherman went the distance and improved his record on the mound to 2-1 for the Tigers, scattering four hits with two strikeouts and one walk.
"I was really pleased with Mark's outing," Shepherd said. "He threw a lot of good balls today. He didn't give up any runs and he only gave up one walk. That's a good outing for No. 6."
Warsaw, which turned two double plays in Wednesday's win, got its eight hits from eight different batters.
Though it came in a loss, one that dropped Wawasee to 2-12 overall and 0-6 in the NLC, holding Warsaw to eight hits and four runs was a positive for Blunk.
"We played one of our better games this year," Blunk said. "Warsaw is one of the best teams in northern Indiana, if we can play like this we'll get our share of wins. We played a lot better today than we've been playing. We gave up 30 hits in our last two games. We play like we did today we'll win some games."
Senior Brian Pollock accounted for two of Wawasee's four hits, Kyle Lantz and James Stucky had the other two.
Wawasee is at Elkhart Memorial Friday, while Warsaw hosts Northridge today in a game that was suspended last week because of rain with the score knotted at 1 in the home half of the second.
WARSAW 4, WAWASEE 0
Wawasee AB R H RBI
Lantz 1b 3 0 1 0
S. Dingeldein lf 3 0 0 0
Christner c 3 0 0 0
Pollock 3b 3 0 2 0
Stucky cf 2 0 1 1
Beer ss 3 0 0 0
J. Dingeldein p 3 0 0 0
Chupp dh 2 0 0 0
Siri 2b 2 0 0 0
Hoover rf 0 0 0 0
Totals 23 0 4 0
Warsaw AB R H RBI
Alderfer ss 3 0 1 0
LaFollette cf 3 0 1 0
DeGeeter dh 3 0 1 0
Knepper 1b 2 0 0 0
Smith rf 3 1 1 0
Nunez 3b 3 1 1 1
Stork c 3 1 1 0
Sharp 2b 3 0 1 0
Sherman p 2 1 1 1
O'Neill lf 0 0 0 0
Totals 25 4 8 2
Wawasee 000 000 0 - 0 4 3
Warsaw 011 101 X - 4 6 2
HR - Nunez (War), Sherman (War)
IP H R BB SO
Wawasee
J. Dingeldein (1-5) 7 8 4 1 2
Warsaw
Sherman (2-1) 6 4 0 1 2 [[In-content Ad]]
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Will Shepherd wants his team to be known for not giving up runs.
The eighth-year Warsaw baseball skipper can rest assured the reputation is building.
With a 4-0 win over visiting Northern Lakes Conference rival Wawasee Wednesday, the Tigers haven't given up a run in 15 innings, as a result remain perfect in conference play.
"This game really is big," Shepherd said. "It always is when it's against a rival. We wanted to keep our momentum going, and they wanted to take it away from us. We want to be established as a team that doesn't give up runs."
Picking up their sixth straight win - something that took less than two hours Wednesday - the Tigers not only beat heavy rain storms but also improved to 12-2 overall and 6-0 in the NLC.
On an afternoon when lightning flashed in the distance, it was a pair of thunderous blasts by the Tigers that ignited the home crowd.
After senior rightfielder Zack Smith's long drive was caught at the wall to start the second inning, classmate Berto Nunez, batting in the No. 6 spot, stepped in and broke a scoreless tie with a solo home run over the leftfield fence.
Junior right-handed pitcher Mark Sherman, ninth in the Tigers' batting order, then helped his own cause when he started Warsaw's half of the third inning with a solo home run that made it 2-0.
"The ball really carries at this ball park," Wawasee coach John Blunk said. "It doesn't matter what time of the year you play here. Warsaw hit the ball hard and put them out there."
In all, the Tigers pounded out eight hits, while striking out only twice and walking once.
"I think we're a pretty good hitting club," Shepherd said. "Our batters are adjusting more as pitchers are throwing more off-speed stuff. We're not making huge strides, but we're getting better every day. We hit the ball deep a couple times today, but I thought Jon Dingeldein did a good job of changing speed. He never let us get away from him, never really let us take control."
Dingeldein took the loss for Wawasee, dropping his pitching record to 1-5, but only gave up two earned runs. The Warriors were troubled by three fielding errors, including two on one play that allowed a Tiger run to come across.
Sherman went the distance and improved his record on the mound to 2-1 for the Tigers, scattering four hits with two strikeouts and one walk.
"I was really pleased with Mark's outing," Shepherd said. "He threw a lot of good balls today. He didn't give up any runs and he only gave up one walk. That's a good outing for No. 6."
Warsaw, which turned two double plays in Wednesday's win, got its eight hits from eight different batters.
Though it came in a loss, one that dropped Wawasee to 2-12 overall and 0-6 in the NLC, holding Warsaw to eight hits and four runs was a positive for Blunk.
"We played one of our better games this year," Blunk said. "Warsaw is one of the best teams in northern Indiana, if we can play like this we'll get our share of wins. We played a lot better today than we've been playing. We gave up 30 hits in our last two games. We play like we did today we'll win some games."
Senior Brian Pollock accounted for two of Wawasee's four hits, Kyle Lantz and James Stucky had the other two.
Wawasee is at Elkhart Memorial Friday, while Warsaw hosts Northridge today in a game that was suspended last week because of rain with the score knotted at 1 in the home half of the second.
WARSAW 4, WAWASEE 0
Wawasee AB R H RBI
Lantz 1b 3 0 1 0
S. Dingeldein lf 3 0 0 0
Christner c 3 0 0 0
Pollock 3b 3 0 2 0
Stucky cf 2 0 1 1
Beer ss 3 0 0 0
J. Dingeldein p 3 0 0 0
Chupp dh 2 0 0 0
Siri 2b 2 0 0 0
Hoover rf 0 0 0 0
Totals 23 0 4 0
Warsaw AB R H RBI
Alderfer ss 3 0 1 0
LaFollette cf 3 0 1 0
DeGeeter dh 3 0 1 0
Knepper 1b 2 0 0 0
Smith rf 3 1 1 0
Nunez 3b 3 1 1 1
Stork c 3 1 1 0
Sharp 2b 3 0 1 0
Sherman p 2 1 1 1
O'Neill lf 0 0 0 0
Totals 25 4 8 2
Wawasee 000 000 0 - 0 4 3
Warsaw 011 101 X - 4 6 2
HR - Nunez (War), Sherman (War)
IP H R BB SO
Wawasee
J. Dingeldein (1-5) 7 8 4 1 2
Warsaw
Sherman (2-1) 6 4 0 1 2 [[In-content Ad]]