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DUNLAP -ÊThe orange T-shirts worn by several of the Fort Wayne Northrop spectators sitting in the first-base line bleachers read, "We work our tails off ... to beat yours!"
The Bruin softball team worked its tail off and added another beating in Wednesday's Concord Regional. The victim was Wawasee, the score 9-0.
The story was senior right-handed pitcher Lisa Kendall. Kendall upped her record to 25-5 in 1998 by throwing a no-hitter against the Warriors.
Kendall came into her senior year 35-8; her first win in 1998 broke the school record for total wins, so she's smashed that by 24 and counting. She owns a 60-13 record in her career.
But this was the first no-hitter this season for the All-State girl who will play for Valparaiso University.
"She's had a few one-hitters," Northrop coach Kerry Roussey said. "A lot of times a team will bunt and get a runner on that way. Most of the teams she's given up hits to come in the first or second inning. After those first two innings, we're pretty confident about what will happen."
Judging by records, the Warriors were underdogs anyway. They entered 19-11, while Northrop, which has won a sectional title every year since 1993, came in 27-5.
Then the worst-case scenario happened to the Warriors. They let the Bruins jump all over them in the first inning.
Two crucial errors, one each by senior shortstop Kari Wortinger and senior third baseman Sonya Beer, helped Northrop to a 4-0 lead after one inning. The Bruins needed only two hits to score the four runs, which were all unearned.
Giving Kendall a 4-0 lead to work with early was like giving her the lock and key to the game.
Roussey, along with Wawasee's team, knew that.
"In the first inning, their heads kind of went down," Roussey said. "There was no doubt about that.
"You're not going to get much off of Kendall. You have to earn it, or we have to make mistakes."
"It was the domino effect," Wawasee coach Bo O'Dell said. "We didn't make any more plays. We didn't get anything going. It took a little of the fight out of us."
Wawasee had 21 at-bats in the game. So dominating was Kendall that Wawasee batters hit only one ball out of the infield. Her herky-jerky motion, the way she took a long stride with her left foot, the way her glove smacked off her left leg then right leg before the ball smacked into the catcher's glove, baffled Wawasee hitters.
Add to that she has good stuff, too. She spotted a good fastball and mixed in a devastating changeup.
"She just throws a lot of different pitches, so when she brings her fastball, it looks a whole lot quicker," O'Dell said. "She threw the drop-ball; she threw the rise-ball. Whenever she put one in there that was hittable, we never made solid contact, because of all of her different speeds."
The first inning set the tone for the game. Wawasee finished with five errors, and only two of Northrop's nine runs were earned. The shoddy Warrior defense gave the Bruins seven free runs.
"If you take away all the unearned runs, it's a two-run ballgame, even without us hitting the ball," O'Dell said. "We were mainly going through the motions, waiting for it to end."
The Bruins tacked on two more runs, both earned, in the second to take a 6-0 lead. They added three more unearned runs in the fourth for the 9-0 lead, and by the time the fifth inning arrived, Roussey sent pinch-hitter after pinch-hitter into the game.
Senior right-hander Jaime Conn started and took the loss. She lasted 1-1/3 innings and was followed by junior right-hander Megan King, who pitched three innings, and sophomore Andrea Gingerich, who pitched the last two.
O'Dell thought they did their jobs; Northrop finished the game with nine hits, all singles.
But like other regionals Wawasee competed in, the defense behind them scuffled. A year ago the Warriors lost to South Bend LaSalle 12-2 in the Mishawaka Regional. They allowed 10 runs by the third inning and committed four errors in the game.
The Warriors, who tied a school record for wins in a season with 19, have won the last three Warsaw Sectionals but have yet to win a regional. O'Dell believes it's time to quit falling apart at the regional.
"This is what we did last year at the regional level," he said. "It's something Wawasee has to get past, being content winning a sectional. Now we have to look forward to being competitive at the regional level year in and year out."
