Lisa Mattke stands 5 feet 4 and weighs 120 pounds. An intimidating presence, she's not.

Until she throws a softball, something she does better than any other Northern Lakes Conference softball player.

Warsaw's road to the NLC softball title runs through Plymouth, and any title running through Plymouth goes through senior Lisa Mattke.

Mattke, who will play outfield for Indiana University, pitched Plymouth to a 6-2 Monday road win over Warsaw. Plymouth improved to 13-3 overall and 7-0 in the NLC. Warsaw dropped to 9-9 overall and 6-2 in the NLC.

Mattke, who upped her record to 11-1, struck out 12 in her seven-inning, complete-game win. She allowed only three hits through the first six innings and five for the game. She is 44-12 (.786) since her sophomore year. Her record for strikeouts in a game is 16.

This is how good Mattke is: When asked what school records she has set, Plymouth assistant coach Ron Sikorski said, "Everything. She rewrote the record book for us."

Mattke made first team All-State last year, when she batted .524.

Asked if Mattke is the best pitcher his team would face this season, Warsaw coach Craig Helfrich said: "By far."

On a day the Tigers faced Mattke, the last thing they could afford was suspect defense. But suspect defense they provided with five errors. Every inning Warsaw committed an error, Plymouth scored at least one run.

"Obviously against Plymouth, you cannot make mistakes," Helfrich said. "We did not set the tone. We had how many errors in the first inning? We gave them two runs right off the bat. I mean, it's hard to score runs off Mattke.

"We had not been making mental mistakes lately. We had been playing very good softball. Tonight, I don't know what it was. I hope we weren't intimidated by Mattke."

The start of the game was the end for Warsaw.

Mattke, who also leads off for Plymouth, started the game by reaching first when Warsaw second baseman Melissa Himes booted a ground ball for an error. Plymouth's next batter, Mary Massoglia, followed with another grounder to Himes. Himes fielded the ball cleanly, but when she tried to tag Mattke out, she missed.

The botched play allowed Mattke to reach second and Massoglia to reach first.

Warsaw freshman pitcher Ashley Wyatt nearly erased the mistakes. She got the next batter to hit a fielder's choice, forcing Mattke out at third. She walked Kim Jefferies to load the bases, but then struck out Brittany Rash for the second out.

Wyatt then had two strikes on Andrea Bunton. With Wyatt one pitch away from getting Warsaw out of the inning unscathed, Bunton singled to drive in two runs.

When the top of the first ended, Warsaw trailed 2-0. To win, the Tigers would have to score three runs off Mattke.

Plymouth coach Kevin Gardner was asked the most runs Mattke has allowed in any game this season. "One," he said. "One earned run."

Plymouth tacked on single runs in the third and fifth innings and two in the seventh to take a 6-0 lead into the bottom of the last inning.

The first five innings were all Mattke. She struck out 10 and allowed just two hits. She overmatched Warsaw hitters, often getting them to climb the ladder and chase her high, hard pitches.

Warsaw had two chances to score against Plymouth. The first time came in the sixth inning, when the Tigers trailed 4-0 and loaded the bases with one out after batters reached on a walk, hit and error. But Mattke retired the next two hitters to leave the bases loaded.

The second time the Tigers had a chance to score, they did. This came in the seventh inning, when two Plymouth errors, a Ryann Jones double and Christy Colt single led to two runs - both unearned. The Tigers quit swinging at bad pitches and made Mattke throw strikes.

But Warsaw stopped scoring to fall four runs short.

"We can't spot them a 6-0 lead," Helfrich said.

The bright spot for Warsaw was Wyatt (4-5), who pitched the complete game, allowing six hits. But she couldn't always pitch Warsaw around its defensive mistakes.

"She has come a long way," Helfrich said. "For a freshman, in a big game like this, she pitched a good game for us.

"I couldn't be more pleased with her. It's just that we have to play seven fundamentally sound innings. We didn't do that in a big game like this."

PLYMOUTH 6, WARSAW 2

Warsaw ab r h rbi

Brown cf 4 0 0 0

Colt c 3 0 1 1

Keirn pr 0 0 0 0

Poling ss 4 0 1 0

Burns 3b 4 0 0 0

Overton lf 3 0 1 0

Himes 2b 2 0 0 0

Kurosky rf 1 0 0 0

Fribley rf 2 1 0 0

Ellis dh 2 0 0 0

Wyatt p 0 0 0 0

Frush ph 1 0 0 0

Jones 1b 3 1 2 0

Totals 29 2 5 1

Plymouth ab r h rbi

Mattke p 4 1 1 0

Massoglia 1b 1 1 0 0

Sikorski 1b 2 0 1 1

Large c 4 1 0 0

Jefferies rf 2 0 0 0

Rash lf 2 0 0 0

VanVactor lf 1 0 0 0

Bunton cf 2 0 1 2

Rubesha cf 1 0 0 0

Cox ss 3 1 1 0

Brubaker 3b 3 0 0 0

Haynes 2b 1 0 0 0

Houin rf 2 2 2 0

Totals 28 6 6 3

Plymouth 201 010 2 - 6

Warsaw 000 000 2 - 2

E-Himes 3, Jones 2, Cox, Jefferies, Large, Mattke. LOB-Plymouth 3, Warsaw 8. 2B-Jones, Houin, Mattke. SB-Massoglia. CS-Jefferies. S-Massoglia.

IP H R ER BB SO

Plymouth

Mattke W, 11-1 7 5 2 0 2 12

Warsaw

Wyatt L, 4-5 7 6 6 3 1 4

WP-Wyatt 2. PB-Large. [[In-content Ad]]