Lady Tigers Drop Opener To MishawakaThe Warsaw Lady Tigers opened their varsity softball season Wednesday evening.
Coach Kevin Dishman, whose squad won’t play again until April 9 when East Noble comes to town, called the 6-1 loss to Mishawaka a learning experience.
The teams were tied 1-1 through three innings, but committing four fielding errors and the bat of Mishawaka senior Megan Fry hurt the Lady Tigers.
“We mishandled the ball, got in a hurry and threw it way ... one run turns into three,” said Dishman. “It’s early in the season. It’s great because we have things to work on now. It’s our first game out, it’s good for us to see those things and now we’ll work on those things.
“We didn’t put enough balls in play tonight to really make it happen. Base running, we were aggressive and got picked off a couple times. It’s a learning thing for us. We had a lot of people out of place tonight. That’s not meant to make an excuse ... we had a lot of JV players come up and help us tonight, and we appreciate their effort. We know we’ve got a lot of things to talk about, and work on.”
The Lady Tigers had four hits in the loss, as Hudson Bollinger, Katie Anderson, Lindsey Bradley and Courtney Chookie all hit a single.
The biggest bat of the evening belonged to Fry, Mishawaka’s starting pitcher, who finished the game just a single shy of hitting for the cycle.
Batting in the No. 4 spot, Fry hit an RBI triple in the first inning, reached on a fielder’s choice in the third, hit a double in the fifth and led off the top of the seventh with a solo home run.
“That was a good home run. She tatered that one,” Dishman said of Fry’s performance.
“That was a good home run, but we can’t allow a single turn into a double, and that happened quite a bit tonight. We missed our cuts we needed to make, things like that. Like I said, it’s our first time out, now we can go inside, put it on a chalkboard and talk about that stuff.”
Fry was the winning pitcher, giving up just three hits and one run over four innings. She struck out two and walked four.
Chloe Plunkett pitched the final three innings.
For Warsaw, Chookie worked all seven innings. She gave up 10 hits and six runs – three earned – while striking out seven and walking one.
To go with Fry’s three extra-base hits, Mishawaka senior Anna Carpenter hit three doubles.
The Cavemen broke the 1-1 tie with two runs in the fourth, two more in the sixth and Fry’s solo blast in the seventh.
