Out-Of-Sync Warsaw Holds On To Beat Wawasee

Famous wordsmith and New York Yankee legend Yogi Berra once said, "90 percent of the game is half mental."

The Warsaw Tigers weren't on point mentally but overcame lackluster play to beat Wawasee 3-0 in both softball teams' Northern Lakes Conference opener at the City-County Athletic Complex in Warsaw Tuesday.

"This is not the start to the conference I wanted," said Warsaw head coach Scott Freds of his team. "They came to the park flat and they played flat."

Thanks to the performance of freshman pitching phenom Kelcy Martin and clutch hitting by Brit Clark, the Tigers were able to avoid an upset loss.

Martin had a perfect game heading into the fifth inning before she walked Warrior first baseman Ashley Holdeman.

Then several miscues in the field by Warsaw allowed Wawasee's Cheryl Thomas, Ashley Timmons and Kayln Price on base.

Holdeman was forced out at second base earlier in the inning, but Wawasee loaded the bases with just one out and trailing by the slender margin of 1-0.

Chelsey Jeckert was struck out by Martin for Wawasee's second out and then Kasey Bollier flied out to second baseman Allison Shepherd to end the Warriors' threat.

Wawasee catcher Tarina Sorensen ended Martin's no-hit bid when she lined a single to right-center field with two outs in the top of the sixth inning.

The Warriors were unable to capitalize as Holdeman flied out deep to center field.

And so the evening went at the plate for Wawasee.

"We're struggling offensively right now," said Wawasee head coach Cory Schutz. "We're not having good, hard contact. We came in batting .276 as a team but that's been against competition that isn't as tough. We need to support our pitchers."

Beth Voirol gave one of her best performances of the season for Wawasee, going the distance and giving up just three runs, six hits and one walk over six complete innings.

Voirol's bid for a win was dashed in the bottom of the fifth inning when the Tigers' Clark sent a seeing-eye single to left field with two strikes against her to bring home Shepherd and Rachel Braddock.

"Kelcy's pitching and Brit's clutch hit got us the win today," said Freds. "We weren't in the game otherwise."

Clark was 1 for 3 on the day while sister Tera was 2 for 3.

Shepherd, Braddock and Mallory Hepler rounded out the hitting for Warsaw.

Martin finished her night striking out six, walking one and giving up the one hit to Sorensen.

Despite the less than stellar team outing, Freds feels this year's team can get past a sloppy game.

While the Tigers didn't commit an error in the game, there were several times slow ground balls and slow responses to them, nearly lead to big things for Wawasee.

"This team can overcome bad games and mental lapses," said Freds. "We travel to Goshen tomorrow and we need to come out a lot stronger. Getting road conference wins are tough but that's what we need to be successful."

As for Wawasee, the Warriors head into conference play with some question marks but overall, Schutz feels his team hasn't hit its stride.

"We just need to keep making plays and we'll be alright," said Schutz. "We need to start making more solid contact on offense and I told our kids if that happens we'll be alright.

Warsaw, 7-1 overall and 1-0 in the NLC, travel to Goshen for a 4:30 first pitch today.

Wawasee, 3-8 overall and 0-1 in the NLC, travels to Elkhart Memorial today for a 4:45 p.m. first pitch.