Warriors Hold Off Fairfield Falcons
May 17, 2017 at 4:06 p.m.
By Mark [email protected]
Leading 10-2 going into the seventh inning, Wawasee held off a Fairfield rally to win 10-8 in non-conference baseball action at Warrior Field.
Fairfield allowed 13 Wawasee batters to reach base without a hit, yielding six walks, committing four errors and hitting three batters with a pitch. Eight of those runners scored, and another run crossed the plate on a throwing error. Only Jacob Garcia, with a pinch-hit homer, crossed the plate without some sort of help from the Falcons.
Warrior leadoff hitter Rylan Kuhn walked twice, was hit by pitches twice, and scored three times in no official at-bats.
All the extra runners helped Wawasee make the most of its five hits. Gavin Barker had a three-run double, and Jairus Boyer had an RBI double in the first inning and drew a walk ahead of Garcia’s blast.
“Something we’ve talked about is taking advantage of opportunities, and that’s something we haven’t been able to do lately,” Wawasee coach Brent Doty said. “Now we’re getting back to being more selective at the plate, and going after pitches we can drive and get a base knock with.
“Credit our guys for being disciplined and not swinging at bad pitches and not chasing out of the (strike) zone. But we did benefit from walks and errors.”
Between the third and sixth innings, Wawasee starting pitcher Jake Crousore retired 12 of 13 hitters he faced.
But the wheels came off in the seventh, when Fairfield collected five of its eight hits and made things interesting. A double, a Wawasee error and four singles allowed the Falcons to bring the tying run to the plate.
Josh Slabaugh took over on the mound for the Warriors with one out, and allowed a two-run single before getting the last two outs and the save.
“That’s a little more overextended than what we’ve normally kept (Crousore) out for,” Doty said. “He normally throws between 50 and 60 (pitches) and tonight he was closer to 70.
“So he was a little overextended, but you have to give (Fairfield) credit. They swung the bat well in the last inning. So it was a little bit of both; he ran out of gas, and they began to time him up after seeing him so many times.”
Fairfield remains winless outside of the Northeast Corner Conference, and fell to 4-18 overall. Wawasee improved to 10-14 and travels to Concord for a Northern Lakes Conference game today.
WAWASEE 10, FAIRFIELD 8
F 001 001 6 – 8 8 4
W 200 431 x – 10 5 1
Fairfield – Adam Schrock (L, 4IP, 3H. 6R, 4ER, 3BB. 5K), Evan Connolly (2IP, 2H, 4R, 4ER, 3BB, 2K).
Wawasee – Jake Crousore (W, 6.1 IP, 8H, 8R,. 8ER, 0BB, 0K), Josh Slabaugh (SV, 0.2IP, 1H. 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K)
2B – Jairus Boyer (W), Christian Wright (F), Aaron Skibbe (F), Gavin Barker (W), Isaac Miller (F), Dakota Williamson (F)
HR – Jacob Garcia (W)
Records: Fairfield 4-14, Wawasee 10-14
JV – Wawasee 9, Fairfield 7
Leading 10-2 going into the seventh inning, Wawasee held off a Fairfield rally to win 10-8 in non-conference baseball action at Warrior Field.
Fairfield allowed 13 Wawasee batters to reach base without a hit, yielding six walks, committing four errors and hitting three batters with a pitch. Eight of those runners scored, and another run crossed the plate on a throwing error. Only Jacob Garcia, with a pinch-hit homer, crossed the plate without some sort of help from the Falcons.
Warrior leadoff hitter Rylan Kuhn walked twice, was hit by pitches twice, and scored three times in no official at-bats.
All the extra runners helped Wawasee make the most of its five hits. Gavin Barker had a three-run double, and Jairus Boyer had an RBI double in the first inning and drew a walk ahead of Garcia’s blast.
“Something we’ve talked about is taking advantage of opportunities, and that’s something we haven’t been able to do lately,” Wawasee coach Brent Doty said. “Now we’re getting back to being more selective at the plate, and going after pitches we can drive and get a base knock with.
“Credit our guys for being disciplined and not swinging at bad pitches and not chasing out of the (strike) zone. But we did benefit from walks and errors.”
Between the third and sixth innings, Wawasee starting pitcher Jake Crousore retired 12 of 13 hitters he faced.
But the wheels came off in the seventh, when Fairfield collected five of its eight hits and made things interesting. A double, a Wawasee error and four singles allowed the Falcons to bring the tying run to the plate.
Josh Slabaugh took over on the mound for the Warriors with one out, and allowed a two-run single before getting the last two outs and the save.
“That’s a little more overextended than what we’ve normally kept (Crousore) out for,” Doty said. “He normally throws between 50 and 60 (pitches) and tonight he was closer to 70.
“So he was a little overextended, but you have to give (Fairfield) credit. They swung the bat well in the last inning. So it was a little bit of both; he ran out of gas, and they began to time him up after seeing him so many times.”
Fairfield remains winless outside of the Northeast Corner Conference, and fell to 4-18 overall. Wawasee improved to 10-14 and travels to Concord for a Northern Lakes Conference game today.
WAWASEE 10, FAIRFIELD 8
F 001 001 6 – 8 8 4
W 200 431 x – 10 5 1
Fairfield – Adam Schrock (L, 4IP, 3H. 6R, 4ER, 3BB. 5K), Evan Connolly (2IP, 2H, 4R, 4ER, 3BB, 2K).
Wawasee – Jake Crousore (W, 6.1 IP, 8H, 8R,. 8ER, 0BB, 0K), Josh Slabaugh (SV, 0.2IP, 1H. 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 0K)
2B – Jairus Boyer (W), Christian Wright (F), Aaron Skibbe (F), Gavin Barker (W), Isaac Miller (F), Dakota Williamson (F)
HR – Jacob Garcia (W)
Records: Fairfield 4-14, Wawasee 10-14
JV – Wawasee 9, Fairfield 7
Have a news tip? Email [email protected] or Call/Text 360-922-3092