SOUTH WHITLEY - With three games on the plate Monday, the Whitko Sectional saw the NorthWood Panthers, Columbia City Eagles and Wawasee Warriors advance to the second round.
In the day's opening game, NorthWood defeated West Noble 12-2 in a five-inning game. Because Whitko High School doesn't have lights at its field, the Panthers will host Lakeland Thursday at 5 p.m. in Nappanee, while Columbia City and Wawasee will meet at 5 p.m. Thursday in South Whitley.Wawasee 2, Tippecanoe Valley 0
In a game featuring the best two pitchers in the seven-team sectional, Valley junior Keith Koser only allowed two hits, but his performance was overshadowed by Wawasee junior Jake Goldenberg's no-hitter in the Warriors' 2-0 victory.
"Without question, I think these were the two best pitchers in the sectional," Valley coach Scott Backus said. "Jake did a good job of keeping us off the ball. For most of the game, Keith did a good job too. We give up a run on an error and the other is scored on a base on balls."
The game's first run came in the opening inning, with Wawasee junior leadoff man Mike Milligan lacing a ball to right field. Valley's right fielder was able to get under the ball, but couldn't haul it in, allowing Milligan to reach third. Following a groundout by sophomore Keegan Beer, Milligan crossed home plate, giving his team a 1-0 lead.
"When you get up early in a sectional, you probably win a lot more often than lose," Wawasee coach Jeff Phillips. "You get that first run in the first inning, obviously that calms people down. When we can do that, we can calm down and relax a little bit."
Making the Warriors more calm was the fact that Goldenberg was on the hill. Pitching all seven innings, Wawasee's ace struck out 13, while walking four and hitting a batter.
"When we have Goldenberg on the mound, our confidence is up," Phillips said. "It'd be nice to score more runs when he's on the hill, but in a sectional game, you scratch out a couple of runs, you play good defense - you have a chance to win games."
With a no-hitter in tact, Goldenberg got two quick outs in the sixth, but ran into some trouble when he walked Valley senior Bryce Fisher and hit junior Graham Groninger. Following a double steal, Valley had runners at second and third with two outs and senior Justin Newsome at the plate.
"The only way we probably would have taken him out was if he'd given up a run," Phillips said. "It's one of those situations where he had 13 strikeouts and four walks. We'd like to cut down on the walks, which is something we stress with him."
Goldenberg said the realization that he was in the middle of a no-hitter dawned on him in the inning, as he began to overthrow his pitches. After a visit to the mound by Phillips, Goldenberg ended the Valley threat by striking out Newsome looking.
"Chas (Amadeo) was warming up, and I thought he might take me out after that walk," Goldenberg said. "He kept me in, and I go that no-hitter."
The no-hitter was Goldenberg's second of the year, pulling the feat off earlier this year against NorthWood. But a no-hitter in a sectional game, against a team featuring the area's top hitter in Koser, meant a little more.
"I thought Keith was going to get at least one off of me, but I was just mixing my speeds," Goldenberg said of holding Valley's .568 hitter in check.
Despite being held to an 0-for-3 day at the plate, Koser did pitch six innings, giving up just two hits, an earned run and striking out five.
"I know Keith's had a tough game like that several times this season, where he's only given up a couple of hits and lost the game," Phillips said. "I know they lost a game to Rochester, a big rival for Valley, the same way. Rochester pitcher gave up one hit, Keith gave up two, lost 2-0. He's had some hard luck losses this year."
As a whole, the Valley team's had some hard losses this year.
"I hate to say a 15-11 season was disappointing," Backus said. "Off to an 11-5 start, we would have liked to of ran through our conference a little easier. Being the only team with a winning record going into a sectional with six other teams that are all under .500, we felt like we had a pretty good shot to make a run and do something here. It's frustrating to be walking away after Game 1."
Wawasee will now turn its attention to Columbia City, a team that moved to the second round following its 5-3 win over the hosting Whitko Wildcats in the second game of the sectional.
Back on May 15, a short-handed Wawasee team lost 8-4 at Columbia City after holding a 4-0 lead through four innings.
"We held them down pretty well the first time we played them," Phillips said. "We had a few guys that didn't behave very well that week and didn't play in that game. Hopefully that will give us a little bit of an advantage with those guys being in the lineup for this game."
Columbia City 5, Whitko 3
The Whitko Wildcats had their chances, but just couldn't capitalize in a 5-3 loss to the Columbia City Eagles in the second game of Monday's Whitko Sectional.
"We put guys on base, we just couldn't get them in at the right spots," Whitko coach Erik Hisner said.
In the first two innings, Whitko had a runner called out at home plate, and may have left another run off the board when a deep fly ball out to right field didn't plate a sacrifice run in the sixth inning.
"I probably made a mistake by telling our guy to go halfway initially on the fly ball in the sixth inning," Hisner said of the play, which occurred with no outs and the bases loaded with Whitko down 4-2. "So put that one on me. Give Columbia City credit. They made plays and put the pressure on us."
Whitko did to plate two runs in the sixth, with the second coming when Columbia City freshman pitcher Logan Rehrer threw a wild pitch, allowing freshman Alex Winger to come home, cutting the deficit to 4-3.
After that setback, Rohrer then drew a ground out and pop out to end the threat.
Senior Taylor Kessie led the Wildcats with a 2-for-3 day that included an RBI, but the rest of the team went 2 for 19.
"The bottom of the order came through, but that's just baseball," Hisner said. "Sometimes you get the hits, sometimes you don't. We had our chances, just didn't execute at the right points."
Whitko senior pitcher Brenden Hart went six innings, giving up six hits and four earned runs in the loss.
"Brenden Hart threw a great game for us," Hisner said of the Manchester College-bound Hart. "He did well enough to win, but in tournament play, when things don't go your way against good teams, you're gonna find yourself on the short end."
The loss leaves Whitko with a 5-24 record this year.
"We're very young," Hisner said. "We have 25 kids in the program, 15 freshmen. Obviously we're going to lose a lot, losing our best player, best pitcher (Hart). And Taylor Kessie, he's been a starter for three years, and we're gonna lose him. But we challenged the kids to work hard in the offseason."
WAWASEE 2, TIPPECANOE VALLEY 0
(Whitko Sectional, Game 3)
TV 000 000 0 - 0 0 1
W 100 001 x - 2 2 1
Jake Goldenberg (W, 7IP, 0H, 0R, 13K, 4BB, 1HB) and Dylan Wallace; Keith Koser (L, 6IP, 2H, 2R, 1ER, 5K, 4BB) and Kameron Akers
