Because of the recent unusually cold weather, the season opener for Warsaw's baseball team was delayed two days. It seems as though the Tigers' offense still needs some thawing out.

When Warsaw did finally get to the diamond against Wabash Thursday, the Apaches' Heath Lehner shut the Tigers' offense down in a 6-0 decision. Lehner allowed just two hits and struck out 12 Warsaw batters.

"I thought the Wabash pitcher (Lehner) challenged our hitters," Warsaw coach Will Shepherd said. "He came after us the way a pitcher is supposed to."

Warsaw managed only a single by Matt Kloser in the third and another single by Joe Stanley in the fourth.

"I was a little surprised by our lack of aggressiveness at the plate by some people," Shepherd said. "I still think this group can be a real good offensive team. Today, they came out a little timid. There will be bigger and brighter days ahead for our offense. We just had some kids who are aggressive kids take fastballs for strikes."

Warsaw starting pitcher Evan Miller, making a bid to be the Tigers' ace, matched Lehman for most of the game with only two bad innings. The big Warsaw right-hander struck out eight batters and allowed only three hits through the first four innings.

"I was really pleased with Evan Miller," Shepherd said. "He came out and threw strikes and got ahead of hitters. That was the exact challenge I put to him before the game.

"In the preseason, Evan did real well," he said. "Evan has the talent to be a real good pitcher for us. He proved to me that he is our No. 1 right now."

Both teams battled to a scoreless tie through the first four innings of the game. Warsaw had a chance to get on the board in the third inning, loading the bases with two outs. But didn't get anything out of the play when junior Ben Gates didn't get to third base in time as the Apache third baseman juggled a ground ball by Andy Holst.

Wabash's Joel Barrus recovered in time to get step on third to force Gates, who had gone back to second on the play, for the third out.

The Tigers put two more runners on base in the fourth inning with one out, but didn't score then either.

One inning later, Wabash got a big 3-RBI double from Barrus with the bases loaded to put the Apaches on the board. In the sixth, the Apaches again loaded the bases and got another big double from Kent Montgomery to clear the bases and take a 6-0 lead.

Lehner made the lead stand up, retiring 11 of the final 12 batters he faced.

"We only have ourselves for getting down in this game," Shepherd said. "I really think the pressure would have been taken off if we would have scored when we had that opportunity.

"We knew it was going to be a teaching year," he said. "We are going to have to learn from this and improve our game."

Warsaw (0-1) hosts Fort Wayne Luers Saturday in a doubleheader at 11 a.m. [[In-content Ad]]