Playing in front of their home crowd for the first time in 2024, the Warsaw baseball team had an offensive day to remember against Tippecanoe Valley on Wednesday night. Using an eight-run third inning, the Tigers were able to cruise to an 11-0 victory in five innings.
Warsaw starter Zac Miller was extremely efficient in the first inning after giving up a leadoff walk to Valley leadoff man Issiac Ramsey. Miller struck out the next two hitters he faced, and a heads up play by Tiger catcher Cohen Heady trapped Ramsey in a rundown, where he’d be disposed of for the third out of the inning.
The Tiger offense wasted no time getting its first hit of the game in the bottom half of the frame, as the Warsaw leadoff man Khareus Miller hit a single through the infield on the first pitch he saw. He would steal second and eventually get to third on a ground out, but Viking hurler Wes Haines would retire the next three batters he saw to keep things scoreless after one.
Warsaw had a new pitcher on the mound as the second inning got going, with Oliver Nisen taking over for Zac Miller. Nisen was able to retire the first two hitters he faced rather easily before giving up a two-out walk to Landon Durkes, but he quickly got out of the inning by picking off the Valley third baseman before throwing a pitch to the following hitter.
Some nifty base running in the bottom of the second led to Warsaw scoring the first run of the contest. It all started with a leadoff walk to Hunter Dippon, who was able to reach second a batter later thanks to a bunt single by Logan O’Malley. He’d take third on a fielder’s choice a batter after that , which led to Austin Polk standing on first. Polk would steal second on the first pitch to Wyatt Stapleton, and on the throw down to second base, Dippon would break for home. The throw back to Valley catcher Braxton Alderfer was not in time, and the Tigers had the first lead of the game at 1-0 heading into the third.

    Junior Zac Miller of Warsaw releases his pitch to the plate during Wednesday evening's home game against Tippecanoe Valley. Photo by Gary Nieter

Brock Bowser was the third Warsaw pitcher in as many innings as the third got going, and he ran into some trouble to start it off. Haines led the frame off with Valley’s first hit of the game, followed by a walk to Luke Tucker. But what followed next was an incredible defensive play for the Tigers. On a ground ball hit to Stapleton at second base, he tagged second and threw over to first for the first two outs of the inning. Haines rounded third just a bit too much, and Dippon made the throw over to Grady Nelson at third for a 4-3-5 triple play that ended the threat in its tracks.
The Tiger bats stayed hot in the bottom of the third and Warsaw was able to add on to its lead in a massive way. It started with a walk to Kellen Bailey, who scored a batter later as Nelson ripped a double down the left field line. Nelson would be driven in by Heady, who shot a single in between short and third. Heady would end up scoring all the way from first as Dippon shot another double into center. Dippon would trade places with O’Malley, who came up next and hit the third double of the inning to bring the first baseman home. A batter later, O’Malley would come in to score on another drive to left, this time by Polk.
“When you can string four, five, six solid hits in a row in this game, it can be a lot of fun,” Warsaw head coach Andy Manes said. “It’s fortunate when it happens and it doesn’t happen often so we’ll take it when it does.”
Polk would end up scoring on a wild pitch a few batters later, and after a walk to Miller, who was hitting for the second time in the inning, the bases were now loaded. A wild pitch and Heady getting hit by a pitch would bring two more across and bring the Tiger total to seven runs in the inning. Dippon almost added on to it some more with a long drive to center with the bases juiced once more and two outs, but it was tracked down in caught. Fifteen Tiger hitters came to the plate in the bottom of the third, six of them recording hits. After three, Warsaw was up 8-0.
Senior Corbin Johnston continued the Warsaw pitching carousel in the top of the fourth, and looked terrific doing so. Two of the three batters he saw struck out, and the third resulted in a soft grounder to second.
“That was the game plan tonight, we have the NLC grind coming up so we wanted all of our guys to be fresh when that kicks up,” Manes said. “We had a little bit of a lull with Spring Break there too so we didn’t want to overthrow anyone either.”
There was no stopping the Warsaw hitters at this point, and they added two more in the bottom of the fourth. O’Malley started it off with an infield single, and was brought home on a double by Stapleton. Stapleton would score on a groundout by Logan Kim. Heading into the top of the fifth, Warsaw was now up 11-0 and was three outs away from getting the job done in five innings.
Nelson came in to shut the door in the top of the fifth and he did just that. He got the first two outs via fly outs to left field and finished the job off with a strikeout to give the Tigers a victory in the home opener.
Warsaw (3-2) is scheduled to play at home again on Thursday night against Huntington North, weather permitting. Valley (2-3) is at home against Bremen on Friday.
“We’ve got a lot of guys that were playing for us as freshman and sophomores that are now juniors and seniors so we’ve got experience on our side,” Manes said. “We’ve played five games and I think we’ve played pretty well in four of the five. We’ll go as far as they can take us and I think they can take us pretty far.”