Already enjoying a stellar performance Monday evening, Warsaw senior Marselo Rodriguez found a way to put an exclamation point on it. In the Northern Lakes Conference baseball opener for rivals Warsaw and Wawasee, Rodriguez’s three-run game-ending homer in the fifth inning lifted the host Tigers to a 14-2 win over the Warriors. Rodriguez’s blast over the rightfield fence capped a four-hit performance that also included two doubles, seven RBIs and three runs scored. “Some days it’s like that and you just feel it,” Warsaw coach Mike Hepler said of Rodriguez’s performance. “You could just kind of feel it coming with him. He’s starting to get his timing down. He hit a couple good balls on Friday (against Columbia City), and you could just tell it was starting to click with him. Hopefully he can keep these good things going.” With the win, the Tigers improved to 2-2 overall, while the Warriors fell to 3-4-1. Rodriguez’s contributions highlighted a 16-hit performance by the Tigers, who finished the game with six doubles and a total of eight extra-base hits. Senior Sterling Hay had three hits, including a double and a triple, and scored four runs, while juniors Luke Baker and Collin Marshall had two hits each. Senior Blake Foreman, junior Henry Howard and Marshall all hit a double in the win. “I felt like our kids were really hungry,” said Hepler. “We figured it out Friday when we played Columbia City, what we needed to do in our at-bats, having productive at-bats and going deep into counts. We weren’t getting antsy, we were just relaxing and waiting for our pitches, and it showed today. “I though we made their pitcher, (Lucas) Garza, work a lot early on. We made him go deep into some counts. And Hay and Rodriguez are really fun to watch. They can have some good games this year, and they’re going to be a force to be reckoned with, for sure.” After Garza struck out Howard to start the bottom of the first inning, and then got senior Zach Witt to fly out, he gave up hits to Warsaw’s next five batters and the Warriors quickly fell behind 4-0 on the scoreboard. Wawasee cut the lead in half with a pair of runs in the third inning, but Warsaw matched the Warriors in the home half of the frame, and then added four more runs in the fourth and four in the fifth. “We just didn’t come ready to play, bottom line,” said Wawasee coach Brent Doty. “We got off the bus, we weren’t ready to play, we took it for granted that it was a conference game. We just showed up and laid and egg, that’s pretty much what it comes down to. “We got two outs pretty quick (in the first inning), get a ground ball to the second baseman, we were just a little tardy on the throw, and that led to a bunch of runs. You can’t give teams extra outs, whether it’s Warsaw, or whoever it is. It doesn’t matter who it is, you’re not gonna win games when you’re giving teams extra outs.” Wawasee tallied four hits in the loss. Senior Chase Rookstool had two of them, including a double. Junior Gavin Barker and sophomore Jacob Garcia each hit a single for the Warriors. Garza was charged with the loss on the mound after giving up 10 hits and nine runs in three innings of work. He was replaced by senior Gavin Bontrager, who gave up six hits and five runs in 1-2/3 innings. Junior Isaac Lenon was the starting pitcher for the Tigers, but left the game with an injury. He gave up one hit and two runs in two innings of work. He walked two Wawasee batters and struck out one. Classmate Jordan Jones was credited with the win. Jones faced 11 batters in three innings of scoreless relief. He gave up three hits, walked none and struck out one. “Lenon kind of hurt himself, it was kind of his hip and buttox area, it just kind of tweaked,” said Hepler. “When he landed, he could feel it, so it was just annoying for him more than anything. It was distracting to him. That’s why I said ‘you know what, it’s not worth it.’ “So Jones came in, and Jones doesn’t throw really hard but he keeps everybody off balance and it’s hard to get a good swing on him. Every once in a while they’ll hit one on him, like the Rookstool kid did, but he just doesn’t give up a lot of stuff and he minimizes a lot of damage.”
