Syracuse -ÊEven though the game was not billed as such, it was "Turn Back the Clock Day" Wednesday at Wawasee High School.Ê Warsaw manager Will Shepherd borrowed a page from the playbook of a manager from a foregone, but not forgotten, era, to secure an 8-3 conference victoryÊ over the host Warriors.

Former New York Giants manager John McGraw (1902-32) believed baseball in its purist aspects, stealing bases, taking advantage of untimely errors and moving runners over by means of laying down a sacrifice bunt.ÊÊ

"Normally I hate to give up an out, especially when you only get 21 a game" said Shepherd.

Why the change?Ê

"We knew (Wawasee starting pitcher Drew) Gradle had been brutal on us for a long time," Shepherd said, "so we had to alter our game."

The last time these two teams renewed old acquantances, Warsaw edged out a 1-0 eight-inning decision against the same Drew Gradle.Ê

"Drew is one of the best in the conference, so we had to try and hang in there for a long time," Shepherd said.

Hang is what they did, for five innings to be exact.

Wawasee was the first team to light the scoreboard in its half of the second. Braxton King and R. J. Wilson led off with consecutive singles.Ê

Wawasee manager John Blunk must have read the same McGraw manual as did Shepherd as he instructed Mickey Ashpole to sacrifice the runners over.Ê

Ashpole executed the play flawlessly. With runners on second and third, Warsaw pitcher Craig Lankford uncorked a wild pitch on ball four to Travis Henson, scoring King. A stolen base and an error later, Wawasee led 2-0 after two.

Both teams played to a stalemate until Warsaw's half of the fifth which saw them score four times to take the leade for good.Ê

The inning saw McGraw baseball as it was intended to be. Two stolen bases andÊ two sacrifices later accounted for the runs with the big blow coming off the bat of Derrick Richardson. Richardson singled through a drawn in infield, scoring both Trent Martin and Derek Himes.

Was Shepherd surprised to see the infield in at all positions with no outs and a 2-1 Wawasee lead?

"No I wasn't, given the last time we played them," said Shepherd.

Warsaw scored four more runs in the sixth to cruise to its fifth Northern Lakes Conference win against just one defeat.ÊÊ

Craig Lankford had just healed from a recent ankle injury to pitch a complete game earning his first win of the season.

"This was Lankford's first game in almost three weeks and I was especially pleased with his effort when our defense let us down," said Shepherd.ÊÊÊ

ÊThe road gets no easier for Warsaw. The Tigers next face Goshen on Friday at Warsaw with heavy hitters Fort Wayne Northrop and Plymouth in the not to distant future.Ê

After the win over Wawasee, Shepherd addressed his team about the upcoming schedule.

"We are going to find out in the next three games what we are made of starting with Goshen," said Shepherd.

Shepherd knows the talent level of the Redskins and also knows Goshen is coming off a 6-0 blanking of the same Warriors last Friday.Ê The loss drops Wawasee's NLC record to 1-4 and 7-10 overall. [[In-content Ad]]