Warsaw is in unfamiliar territory after its first Northern Lakes Conference baseball game - first place.

After dropping their NLC opener each of the past two years, the Tigers began their quest for a conference title with a 4-1 win over Kosciusko County rival Wawasee Monday at Tiger Field.

"It (winning the first NLC game) is huge because the last two years we have had decent teams, but we were always looking up and that gets old," Warsaw coach Will Shepherd said. "That wears on you. On down the road, it will be big for us."

After demonstrating a potent offense for much of its first seven games, Warsaw did things a little differently against the Warriors, scratching and clawing and coming up with the hits and plays when it needed them most.

"This is the way it has been all year for us," Wawasee coach John Blunk said. "We're in the game. They got the two-out hits, and we didn't."

Warsaw staked starter Andy Holst to a 2-0 lead in the first inning when it capitalized on some early wildness from Wawasee hurler Farhan Haq. Luke Saylor and Craig Thomas reached after receiving walks. They both would eventually score on Jason Barrett's single up the middle.

"Farhan didn't pitch great, but he competed," Blunk said.

Haq would settle down and battle through three more walks over the next couple of innings. But the Tigers would manage to scratch across a run in the fifth and another in the sixth.

"We certainly have had better offensive nights," Shepherd said. "Their kid (Haq) did a good job of keeping a good offensive team from Warsaw in check. He challenged us and made some clutch pitches."

Holst was making his first start since no-hitting North Miami last Wednesday. Holst did walk five batters and gave up five hits in 4-1/3 innings, but the Warriors couldn't come up with the clutch hit against him.

When Holst did get into trouble in the fifth inning after walking Jesse Leonard and Brad Brown with one out, Craig Lankford relieved Holst and struck out Haq and got Jeff Beer to pop out to Saylor to end the threat.

"Holst kept us in the game," Shepherd said. "I am also pleased with the sophomore (Lankford) coming back from Saturday where he got beat around a little bit against Columbia City. He got outs, which is what we desperately needed in that point in the game. Overall, we played pretty good baseball. Any time you hold another NLC team to one run, you are happy."

Wawasee had seven hits, along with the five walks, but could only push across the lone run. The Warriors, down 2-1, had a chance to tie the score in the fourth inning. With Beer at third and Brent Berkeypile at first, Matt Coy laid down the suicide squeeze bunt attempt. The ball went on a few feet in front of the plate, and Warsaw catcher Matt Kloser was able to go out and get the ball and get back to tag Beer out at the plate.

Berkeypile led the offense with a 3-for-3 performance and Wawasee's lone RBI.

"We have to play aggressive," Blunk said. "Tonight we swung the bats better than we have. Brent Berkeypile decided to keep his weight back and swing through the ball. We just have to play some baseball and continue to get better each game. They have a good ballclub. They are supposed to win, and we're not, but we competed. We get another shot at them, and it should be another good game."

Warsaw (6-2, 1-0) is at Goshen Wednesday, while Wawasee (2-5, 0-1) hosts Fairfield Wednesday. [[In-content Ad]]