Lady Warriors One Win Away From Softball Sectional Title
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Anthony Gadson-agadson@timesuniononline.com
BENTON – The Wawasee softball team is one win away from fulfilling its big plan going into Class 3A Sectional 21 at Fairfield High School. With their sights set on a fifth sectional title, and their first since 2010, the Wawasee Lady Warriors (19-10) downed the Fairfield Lady Falcons (21-7) on their home field Wednesday, 5-2. Wawasee returns to Fairfield today for a 5 p.m. championship game against Lakeland, which defeated NorthWood 10-6 in Wednesday’s first semifinal game. The two teams in the title game met on March 31 in LaGrange, with Wawasee getting a 3-2 victory. The rematch will have a lot more on the line than the season-opener did, and first-year coach Jared Knipper is implementing some of the techniques he uses in his Kindergarten class to motivate the girls. “I read them a storybook called Big Plans about a week ago, and they have been hash tagging that all over Twitter – the big plans we have,” he said. “They’ve kind of adopted that.” Not only did the Lady Warriors need big plans against Fairfield, a team it lost to 7-1 on April 14 in Syracuse, but they also needed big plays, and they got that from the start. After going down in order in the top of the first, the Wawasee defense announced its presence on its first opportunity, as freshman left fielder Ale Brito made a diving catch on a ball hit by Fairfield sophomore Alexis Zook. “We made some really big plays early and set the tone for us – that they were going to need to work for anything they got,” said Knipper. Another freshman who had to come up big for Wawasee was Amber Lemberg, who entered the game as the new pitcher in the second inning after classmate Meghan Fretz walked three of the first six batters she faced. “We know that Amber throws a lot of strikes,” Knipper said of making the early move. “Meghan has a little more velocity, but if she’s struggling a little bit, we don’t want the wheels to fall off too soon. We made the change and it worked out for us tonight.” Knipper has used both pitchers all season long, and with Lemberg going seven innings in Tuesday’s 6-0 win over Tippecanoe Valley, she got the start at first base against Fairfield. But when she had her number called, she responded, pitching six innings, giving up four hits, two runs, one earned and striking out five. “She’s come into her own,” Knipper said. “She’s pitching great, and defensively, she’s got some girls making plays when they need to be made. She’s done a fantastic job.” Fairfield did get a 1-0 lead on Lemberg in the bottom of the third, as sophomore pitcher Lairen Miller hit a one-out single, then came around to score on an RBI double by sophomore catcher D.J. Martz. After a walk and an error, Fairfield had the bases loaded with one out, but once again, Brito, the shortest player on the field, came up big. Looking to drive in another run, Fairfield senior Payton Kammerdiener hit a fly ball to Brito in left field, who caught the ball and gunned down Martz at home plate, as she was attempting to score on the play. “Brito did a nice job tonight,” Knipper said. “She had two hits at the plate, also. She had, probably, her best night of softball tonight.” Just as Miller had given herself a lead, her defense allowed Wawasee junior Alli Ousley to open the fourth inning by reaching on an error. Following a sacrifice-bunt by sophomore Kylee Rostochak, sophomore Danielle Gunkel plated Ousley with an RBI single. Fretz continued to make the Fairfield defense think, getting a bunt single as the defense couldn’t decide if the shortstop or third baseman should pick up the ball. Gunkel and Fretz moved into scoring position thanks to another sacrifice bunt, this time from junior Paige Hlutke, but it may not have been needed as senior Courtney Crabtree plated both on a two-run double, giving Wawasee a 3-1 lead. “She’s the senior and she’s gotta do what she’s gotta do,” Knipper said of Crabtree. “We told her at the beginning of the sectional that we were going to rely on her to do her job at the plate and win ball games. She came up big for us.” Brito followed Crabtree’s big hit with a single of her own and freshman Madie Wilson drove in Crabtree with a single, putting Wawasee in front 4-1. “Some of the games we’ve had lately, we haven’t been stringing the hits together,” Knipper said. ”Tonight, we had an inning where we strung a bunch together. That deflates somebody’s sails.” Wilson also drove in Wawasee’s final run, hitting a two-out RBI double in the sixth inning that scored Hlutke, who opened the inning with a double of her own. In all, Wawasee outhit Fairfield 10-4, including three doubles. Gunkel joined Brito and Wilson with two hits in the game, while Crabtree and Wilson each had a team-high two RBIs. After beating Fairfield, Wawasee must refocus to play its third game in three nights if it wants to make its big plan a reality. “We’ve got to come out and hit the ball like we did tonight,” Knipper said. “We can’t make mistakes and need to make the plays we can make. If we can do that, I think we’ll have an opportunity to bring a sectional championship back to Wawasee.”
