Lady Warriors Still Perfect In NLC PlaySYRACUSE – Making big plays in big moments led the Wawasee Lady Warriors to another Northern?Lakes Conference win and at least a share of the league title.
In Wednesday’s 5-1 win over the visiting Northridge Lady Raiders, Wawasee overcame four errors in the field with timely defensive plays and a three-run homer by senior Meghan Fretz.
Fretz, who was 3 for 3 at the plate, also pitched all seven innings. She gave up five hits and two walks, and struck out four Northridge batters.
“Defensively, we need to clean some things up,” said first-year Wawasee coach Michael Barger, whose team beat Northridge 5-4 on April 24 in Middlebury.
“We weren’t crisp, but Meghan pitched a pretty good game in the circle, and, like I?just told them, we had the big key hits. We had the big defensive plays at the right moments. That’s what pushed us over the edge today.”
Northridge took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning when Jalyn Smith was hit by a pitch and later scored on a throwing error.
The Lady Warriors responded with a big home half of the third inning.
Junior Aubrey Kuhn started things with a single off Northridge pitcher Allison Hostetler, followed by a bunt single from senior speedster Ale Brito.
After senior Kayla White advanced Kuhn and Brito with a sacrifice bunt, Fretz muscled a shot over the right-centerfield fence.
“It’s what we’ve been doing ... we’re just not getting hits the first couple innings, a popup here, a popup there,” said Barger. “All of a sudden I change my ways. We use bunts to get people on, and then use our big hitters. It worked again tonight. We didn’t get any big hits the first couple innings, so we bunted a couple of our faster girls on, and then Meghan did some damage.”
The Lady Warriors tacked on two more runs in the fourth inning when White ripped a single that scored senior Christy Carson and Brito.
Carson was running for Kuhn, who hit a two-out, ground-rule double and injured her hamstring while rounding the bases.
To go with Fretz’s three hits, Wawasee got two hits each from senior Amber Lemberg, Kuhn and Brito.
With the win, which was Wawasee’s 22nd-straight NLC victory, the Lady Warriors improved to 18-3 overall and 11-3 in conference play.
Northridge, currently second in the league standings, fell to 14-7 and 8-3.
Hostetler, who gave up 11 hits and struck out five batters in six innings of work, led Northridge with two hits, including a double.
