ELKHART – Warsaw’s varsity baseball team was on a roll. The Tigers had won three straight games and had just one blemish in Northern Lakes Conference play. Then the team loaded the bus for Elkhart Memorial. The Tigers stranded seven baserunners against Crimson Chargers junior left-hander Matt Kloss (2-2) and a well-placed hit by Kloss in the second inning drove in the game’s lone run. The 1-0 win snapped a three-game losing streak for Memorial, which moved to 6-9 overall and 2-2 in the NLC while Warsaw dropped to 7-6 and 5-2. “It didn’t go our way,” Warsaw coach Mike Hepler said. “But that’s no excuse. We had some opportunities that we didn’t get done.” Meanwhile, Kloss retired the lead-off hitter in every inning but the sixth. Warsaw did have two hits in the first inning (single to center by senior Zach Witt and single to shortstop by senior Sterling Hay) and two hits in the fourth inning (single to short by senior Marselo Rodriguez and single to center by junior Braxton Tennant), but left two runners in both frames. In the Tigers’ sixth, junior Henry Howard cracked a one-out single to center. Tennant then reached base on an error and fielder’s choice but was out going to second and Howard would up being left at third base. “It was infortunate we couldn’t scratch a run across for Jordan Jones,” Hepler said of the junior right-hander who tossed Warsaw’s fourth straight complete game while yielding five singles with no strikeouts and no walks and giving up the one unearned run. “He pitched a great game. He didn’t have his best stuff, but kept us close. He kept them off-balance.” Jones retired the side in order in the first, fourth and sixth innings. Memorial left four runners on base in the game and three of those came in the second inning. “(Jones) did a great job of keeping us off-balance,” Chargers coach Scott Rost said. “We didn’t perform well at the plate. Give him credit because we had a chance to get after him in that (second) inning with the bases loaded and one out.” Memorial plated its run in the second when Brett Wilson reached on a one-out error and moved to second and third on consecutive singles by sophomores Jordan Siddons and Nolan Grose. When Kloss had what amounted to a swinging bunt up the first base line it drove in Wilson with the game’s lone run. Warsaw saw potential rallies end with pop-outs and strikeouts on a missed bunt attempt as well as having two runners thrown out on the base paths. “We need to put the ball in play in certain situations and we didn’t do that particularly well,” Hepler said. “I’ve got to credit (Kloss) a lot for that. He came right at us and was aggressive.” Witt, who went 3 for 3 with singles in the first, third and fifth innings, was the lone batter in the game with more than one hit. The Tigers are in action again Wednesday when they travel to NLC foe Wawasee, while Memorial plays Plymouth the same day.
ELKHART MEMORIAL 1, WARSAW 0 War 000 000 0 – 0 7 1 EM 010 000 X – 1 5 1 Warsaw – Jordan Jones (L, 3-1); Memorial – Matt Kloss (W, 2-2. Records: Memorial 6-9 (4-3 NLC), Warsaw 7-6 (5-2 NLC)
