Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
The chances were there for Warsaw. Runs are a totally different matter.
By squandering several offensive opportunities, the Tigers dropped their fifth straight game Wednesday, a 1-0 loss to Northern Lakes Conference foe Northridge.
Warsaw started the game by putting the first batter on base in the first two innings. But the next three batters went down in order 1-2-3.
From there it only got worse for Warsaw, and more frustrating.
Witness...
• Alyssa Raphael triples with two outs in the third inning. Tyson Reber then hits a shot down the third-base line, but it is right at Northridge's Jamie Pinckert, who makes the catch.
• In the fifth inning, Winney Hake led off the frame with a base hit. The next batter, Tricia Hanes, thought she had laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt that hugged the third-base line. But after Northridge catcher Heidi Delcamp picked the ball up and threw it over the first baseman's head, the umpire ruled the ball was foul. On the next pitch, Hanes grounded into the 1-6-3 double play.
• In that same fifth inning, Angie Cox singled with two outs and moved to second as Jill Schlotterback reached on an error. Cox got to third on another error. But the threat ended when Schlotterback was caught trying to steal second on what seemed to be a mix-up on what she needed to do.
• Warsaw put runners on first and second with two outs in the seventh inning, but Cox struck out to end the inning and the game.
"We are not broken," Warsaw coach Rod Yoder said. "We will find it. We will just keep pushing them. I know they are a better team, and they know it. Somehow we have to break out of this. I don't know what to do except to tell them it will happen."
With the loss, Warsaw dropped to 5-8 on the season. Of the Tigers' eight losses, four have been either one- or two-run decisions.
The tough-luck loser was Rachel Liebsch. She allowed only four hits and one earned run that scored on a passed ball in the second inning. Liebsch struck out only three batters, but walked none and really had the Raiders guessing all game long.
"She had some of those kids knowing what she was going to throw, and they still couldn't time it," Yoder said. "You can't ask her to do much more."
Even though she doesn't have that many wins to show for it, Liebsch has steadily been getting better this season and has become the Tigers' ace.
"Early in the year, we had to work off speed," Yoder said of Liebsch's progress. " She can throw hard, but not in the cold weather. We had to make sure the movement was there. What she has to work on is movement and changing speeds. She is doing a better job."
If Liebsch was the tough-luck loser than the lucky winner was Northridge's Sharon Hochstetler. Frankly, she was not the most over-powering pitcher the Tigers have faced this season. All Hochstetler did was throw strikes and got some help from the Warsaw hitters. She struck out seven Warsaw batters, threw of which were called third strikes.
"She (Hochstetler) was not that strong of a pitcher," Yoder said. "She has improved a lot from last year. But we have seen far faster and better. We just looked, and I am not asking them to look or go deep in the count."
