The final days of May signals the end of the regular season and points toward postseason baseball play. If the Warsaw Tigers were to use their two most recent games as a stethascope to measure the team pulse, they would find all's well headed toward the Elkhart sectional.Ê

Warsaw duplicated the shutout of Tippecanoe Valley by drubbing the Rochester Zebras 10-0 Thursday afternoon.Ê

Behind exceptional pitching and long distance hitting, the Tigers were able to clobber Rochester in only five innings.

The Tigers danced all over losing pitcher Kyle Waltz to the fine tune of 12 hits and eight runs chasing him after just four innings of work.Ê Warsaw manager Will Shepherd was understandably pleased with the lumber attack by offering this, "we had some guys rockin' at the plate, especially with two strikes."

As any baseball officianado knows, hitting with two strikes could leave any one defenseless as a deer trapped in oncoming headlights.

This was a team effort as Shepherd said, "It was real nice to see some guys hit who hadn't (of late)."

The Tigers tallied 15 hits off of two different pitchers.

Warsaw scored in two varieties, early and often.

After scoring three runs in their half of the first inning, Warsaw's Trent Golden stepped to the plate and belted a home run over the right field fence to make the score 4-0.Ê

Warsaw was not finished in the home run department as Zach Nelson deposited Waltz's fourth-inning pitch over right center to make the score 8-0.Ê What made Nelson's home run special was it was his eigth of the season, tying him for the single-season home run record total in school history.Ê

Nelson has four games left to break the record.

Not to be dwarfed in Warsaw's breaking out the bats was the sensational pitching effort of Adam Augustine. Augustine evened his record to 5-5 with the mercy-rule shutout by striking out 11 out of the 15 Zebra outs.Ê

"Adam had all three pitches working well for him, plus he jumped on them early" said Shepherd.Ê

ÊAugustine whiffed five of the first six batters.

ÊWith games dwindling down to just a precious few before postseason play, Shepherd appears to see the direction in a clearer light after the two most recent routs.

"This is a good sign before sectional play," Shepherd said.Ê

ÊAsked about the keys to advancing in the postseason, Shepherd said, "We have good enough pitching to go deep into the tournament, but solid defense is the key."

ÊBy outscoring Tippecanoe Valley and Rochester 23-0, everything appeared as the Zebra colors, black and white to Shepherd.

"When pitchers are doing their job, the game is much easier" Shepherd said.Ê

ÊSomeone might want to tell Shepherd to do the math and save a few runs for next week. If Warsaw is to continue to roll its opponents, one run is all it takes.

With the win, Warsaw raises its record to 14-10.Ê Up next on the horizon for Warsaw is a twinbill with Ft Wayne Bishop Luers on Saturday.

WARSAW 10, ROCHESTER 0

Rochester 000 00 - 0 4 1

Warsaw 313 12 -Ê10 15 0

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Rochester AB H R BI

Tammany lf 2 1 0 0

Patterson 2b 3 0 0 0

Surface ss 2 1 0 0

Wilburn 3b 2 1 0 0

McLochlin c 2 0 0 0

Waltz p/1b 2 0 0 0

Frounfelter rf 2 0 0 0

Miller rf 0 0 0 0

Holcomb 1b/p 1 0 0 0

Sawyer ph 1 0 0 0

Swank cf 2 1 0 0

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Warsaw AB H R BI

Golden lf 4 1 2 1

Walmer ss 4 3 1 1

Siebenmorgan c 4 3 1 1

Stork pr 0 0Ê 0 0

Lankford dh 3 1 1 0

Koser rf/ph 1 1 0 1

Nelson 1b 3 2 1 3

Augustine p 1 0 0 0

J. Milton pr 0 0 0 0

Martin 3b 3 1 1 1

Richardson cf 3 1 1 0

Grubbs 2b 3 2 2 2

E-Surface. LOB-Warsaw 7, Rochester 5. 2B-Nelson, Martin, Richardson, Grubbs, Wilburn. HR- Golden, Nelson. SB-Tammany, Golden

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Pitching IP H R ER K BB

Rochester

WaltzÊÊ L 4 12 8 8 5 2

Holcomb 1/3 3 2 0 0 0

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Warsaw

AugustineÊ W 5 4 0 0 11 1

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Ê

PB-McLochlin. WP-Waltz 2. [[In-content Ad]]