It's been the Achilles' heel much of the season for Warsaw's varsity baseball team, but the Tigers took a step forward with their defensive play Wednesday afternoon.

Behind stronger defensive play, a solid outing from senior pitcher Ryan Cox and some quality at-bats, the Tigers beat visiting Northern Lakes Conference rival Wawasee 10-0 in five innings in front of a good-sized crowd at Tiger Field.

Warsaw entered the contest having committed 45 errors in 12 games, an average of nearly four miscues per contest.

Wednesday against the Warriors, things were different, however.

The Tigers committed an error in the first inning, allowing Wawasee leadoff hitter Ryan Beer to reach first, but were flawless the rest of the game as they swept the two-game season series against the Warriors.

"Defensively, we took a step forward," said Warsaw coach Will Shepherd, whose Tigers beat Wawasee 17-3 in five innings in Syracuse in their NLC opener. "It wasn't perfect, but I'll take it, it was a step forward."

Cox pitched all five innings for Warsaw, giving up just three hits, walking none and striking out three. Two of Cox's strikeouts came in the first inning and the senior hurler threw just 54 pitches in the win - 43 of which were strikes.

"That's a pretty good ratio," Shepherd said of the number of strikes Cox threw. "That's his best outing as a Tiger, no question. He threw a nasty slider that they couldn't hit. He did a great job. We had a little chat before the game. What's killed us before is base on balls. We didn't need that tonight. He's been rushing a bit. I told him to slow down and have an idea of what he wanted to do. He didn't walk people. That was key."

Beer reached on the Tigers' throwing error in the first, while Steve Dingeldein hit a single in the second inning, Ben Champoux hit a double in the fourth inning and Aaron Hoover hit a single in the fifth.

No other Warriors reached base in the game.

The Tigers scored once in each of the first three innings, added two more runs in the fourth and then scored five in the home half of the fifth inning, ending the game with the 10-run mercy rule.

Wawasee failed to retire any Warsaw batters in the fifth inning.

Kyler Mylin started the bottom of the inning with a walk for the Tigers, followed by a double from Tyler Stouder that allowed Mylin to score.

Warrior head coach Mike Hedman then replaced Beer on the mound with sophomore Nick Sommers, who lasted just three batters, walking Derek Freds and Mark Sudhoff and hitting Jordan Williams with a pitch as the Tiger advantage ballooned to 7-0.

Junior Heath Shock replaced Sommers and gave up an RBI single to Matt Ransbottom and a two-RBI single to Brumbaugh, whose base hit ended the game and accounted for the 10-0 final score.

While Cox had great control Wednesday afternoon, the Wawasee pitching staff walked four batters, hit one batter and gave up 10 hits.

Beer took the loss for the Warriors, dropping his pitching record to 1-4. Beer pitched four innings, giving up eight hits and seven runs. He walked two and struck out none.

Six of Warsaw's 10 hits came from Ransbottom and Brumbaugh.

Ransbottom hit a solo home run in the second inning and finished the game 3 for 3 at the plate. He scored two runs and had two RBI. Brumbaugh pounded out three singles in the win. He scored one run and drove in two.

Evan Lancaster, Cox and Freds all had singles for the Tigers, while Stouder pounded out a double.

Warsaw is now 5-8 overall and 4-2 in the NLC, while Wawasee fell to 2-12 overall and 0-7 in conference play.

Warsaw is in action again Friday at NLC foe Goshen. The Tigers will finish a suspended game in which they lead the Redskins 3-2, followed by the regularly scheduled game.

The Warriors play Friday at Elkhart Memorial.

WARSAW 10, WAWASEE 0 (5 innings)

Wawawsee

AB R H RBI

Beer p 1 0 0 0

Allen rf 2 0 0 0

Champoux cf 2 0 1 2

Christner c 2 0 0 0

Wiggs 3b 2 0 0 0

Dingeldein lf 2 0 1 0

Drent 2b 2 0 0 0

D. Hoover 1b 2 0 0 0

A. Hoover 2 0 1 0

Shock rf 0 0 0 0

Sommers p 0 0 0 0

Totals 17 0 0 0

Warsaw

AB R H RBI

Cox p 2 2 1 0

Mylin cf 1 1 0 0

Stouder c 2 1 1 2

Freds dh 2 1 1 1

Sudhoff 2 1 0 0

Williams 1b 2 1 0 1

Ransbottom lf 3 2 3 2

Brumbaugh 2b 3 1 3 2

Lancaster rf 1 0 1 2

Totals 18 10 10 10

Wawasee (2-12, 0-7) 000 00 - 0 3 1

Warsaw (#5-8, 4-2) 111 25 - 10 10 1

2B - Champoux, Stouder. HR - Ransbottom.

IP H R BB SO

Wawasee

Beer (1-4) 4 8 7 2 0

Sommers (5) 0 0 3 2 0

Shock (5) 0 2 0 0 0

Warsaw

Cox (1-2) 5 3 0 0 3 [[In-content Ad]]