Getting off to a good start in Monday's game helped the Wawasee High School softball team get off to a good start in the Northern Lakes Conference standings. In the league opener at rival Warsaw, the Lady Warriors scored once in the first inning and eventually built a 5-0 lead en route to a 6-1 victory over the Lady Tigers. Wawasee is now 7-1 overall, while Warsaw, which got its lone run via a homer by junior Saylor Bradley in the fifth inning, fell to 2-3 on the season. “I'm an Energizer bunny out here, I'm crazy,” said first-year Wawasee coach Michael Barger, a Warsaw grad and former Tiger baseball player like his assistant coach and brother, Brian Barger. “I told the players to start bringing a little crazy to the game. It's not that they think they're better yet, it's that they're still trying to find themselves. “You've got Hannah Haines playing third base ... she never played third base last year. You've got Madie Wilson playing short stop ... she never played short last year. I still think they're trying to find themselves, and every game they're finding a piece of themselves. That's what's happening, and I think come May it'll all be put together.” After plating one run in the top of the first inning, Wawasee scored once in the third, three times in the fifth and once in the seventh. The Lady Warriors, who got eight hits off Warsaw sophomore Courtney Chookie, had just two hits in the first four innings. Wawasee opened the fifth with consecutive singles from Wilson, Grace Anne Kerlin, Faith Swihart and Aubrey Kuhn. The four-hit, three-run inning was more than enough insurance for a veteran team with nine seniors. Chookie went the distance for Warsaw and was charged with the loss after giving up the eight hits and six runs. She didn't strike anyone out or give up a walk. Senior Meghan Fretz was the winner in the circle for Wawasee, giving up just three hits and a run in seven innings of work. She struck out 10 Warsaw batters and walked one. Warsaw coach Kevin Dishman referred to the Lady Warriors as the measuring stick in the NLC, the kind of team he’s trying to build. “We weren’t afraid to attack them,” said Dishman. “They threw the first punch. We got jarred by the first one. Our approaches at the plate weren’t as aggressive as we wanted them to be. There was some selfishness from the players not attacking the third pitch, when we got two strikes and were afraid to swing at it. There’s a learning curve to it. “Wawasee is the measuring stick in the NLC, and we’re going to work hard so that nobody else gets us, and we’re going to try and get them in a couple weeks.” Warsaw and Wawasee will meet again May 3 in Syracuse. The Lady Tigers are in action again tonight with a non-conference game at Columbia City, while the Lady Warriors travel to Elkhart Memorial for a league game Wednesday.
