And apparently, the gauge is pointed in the right direction.

Rachel Liebsch's two-run single in the bottom of the seventh inning provided Warsaw with the winning margin as it rallied for a 6-5 win over the Berries.

"Logansport is a steady, steady program," Warsaw coach Rod Yoder said. "They are always there. I was surprised they were not ranked (in the preseason) this year."

The Berries, who spent two seasons ranked No. 1 in the state a few years ago, have had their way with the Tigers in the past.

"Two years ago, we lost 7-1 to Logansport, and we couldn't do anything," Yoder said. "Last year, it was 3-1 and again the defense came back to haunt us."

Maybe, more importantly, the game marked the start of year No. 3 of Yoder's plan for the rebuilding of the Tigers' program. Once a state champion (1991), Yoder is looking to get Warsaw back up to that point once again. But he knows it will take time.

"It is a nice program win," Yoder said. "Two years ago we worked on nothing but fundamentals. Last year was trying to get execution with fundamentals. The scores got tighter, but we weren't winning. This year hopefully will show the kids that if you have the fundamentals, the intensity will pay off."

Maybe in the past, the Tigers would have folded their tent in this type of game, but Yoder should have an idea already of what guts and courage this team has.

After taking a 4-2 lead in the fourth inning, Warsaw watched as it all unraveled in the seventh inning when Logansport pushed across three runs to take a 5-4 lead.

It was do or die time for the Tigers, not to mention the fact that what little sun was heating the field and the players was not gone and trying to hitting the ball was not a pleasant experience for the batters at this point.

Alyssa Raphael led off the inning with an infield hit, and Jill Schlotterback followed with a single of her own. Shannon Barger hit a slow roller to Berry shortstop Brooke Landis, but Landis' throw to third to try to get Raphael was too late and off target, loading the bases with no outs.

Liebsch come up to bat with a chance to atone for a rough game for her. Not only had Liebsch, the Tigers' pitcher, surrendered the lead to the Berries, but twice she had gotten banged up on line drives up the middle. On the first pitch, Liebsch laced a single to right field, scoring Raphael and Schlotterback with the winning margin.

"It wasn't pretty," Yoder said. "The kids had a lot of spirit. The kids know there are no predictions. I told them we are going after one win, then we can go after two."

Logansport broke on top first with two runs in the second inning, with Julie Loner's double the big blow for the Berries. Warsaw came back in its half of the second to tie the score on a walk to Liebsch, a stolen base, base hit by Tyson Reber, a walk to Winney Hake and a wild pitch.

Warsaw struggled against Logan pitcher Brooke Maxson through the first four innings, striking out eight times. But slowly the Tigers started to break through against the right-handed fireballer and also took advantage of some of her wildness.

In the fourth, Reber reached on an error, went to second on a wild pitch and scored on a Tricia Hanes singles. Hake then singled, and pinch runner Angie Cox scored on a ground out by Trisha DeLaCruz.

Logansport loaded the bases in the seventh inning with its All-State candidate Brooke Landis coming to the plate with already two hits in the game. Landis laced a shot to right field that Hake, a move-in to Warsaw, made a nice running catch on and probably saved at least two runs. Logansport scored on the play, though, and got two more singles for two more runs to take the 5-4 lead.

Maxson ended up with nine strikeouts, but walked seven Tigers.

"I have seen her pitch a lot better," Yoder said. "Maybe it was the cold or maybe they had her working on different pitches, and she doesn't have control of them yet. She was a little of tonight."

Warsaw (1-0) is at Mishawaka Thursday. [[In-content Ad]]