Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
On a night when the Warsaw baseball team honored its seniors, how appropriate it was for a trio of seniors to come up big.
"I'm extremely proud of the seniors and what they've meant to our program," said Warsaw coach Will Shepherd. "We're gonna miss them around here. They've made a lot of big plays around here."
And last night, on their home field for the last time in the regular season, the Tiger seniors came up big against Tippecanoe Valley.
In the bottom of the fifth inning, after Valley pitcher Richie Swanson walked Pat Riley and forced Jon Walmer to fly out to center, senior Jason Barrett launched a two-run homer over the right-center-field fence, pushing Warsaw's advantage to 4-0 at that point. The Tigers went on to win 8-0, improving their record to 16-10-1. The Vikings fall to 5-17.
"Barrett's home run I thought gave us the cushion we needed," said Shepherd. "Their pitcher kept them in the game up to that point. He kept us off balance and made us swing."
The other two seniors of note for Warsaw last night were Joe Stanley, who went 2 for 4 at the plate with a double and RBI, and right-handed pitcher Adam Grimm. Grimm picked up the win on the mound going the entire seven innings with no walks and six strikeouts.
"It took me three or four innings to get the control I needed," said Grimm. "In the fourth inning I got on a roll and from then on it was easy as pie."
The story for Valley was a little bit different. While the Tigers pounded out 10 hits to get their eight runs on the board, the Vikings tallied nine hits but couldn't get runners across in key situations. Numerous times Valley coach Pat O'Connell asked his team to bunt. And numerous times they faltered.
"We didn't execute our bunting," said O'Connell. "We've worked so hard on swinging the bat, but we've lost our fundamentals. They didn't execute the bunts I gave."
Valley's other downfall: errors. The Vikings committed seven errors while the Tigers were victim to just one.
"That's been our nemesis all year," said O'Connell. "It's been three or four errors every game that's hurt us. And it's not the same guy every time so it's hard to get it corrected. Still, I like the way we're playing but we only have until Monday to get it together."
Valley will play Fort Wayne Elmhurst at 10 a.m. in the Carroll Sectional Monday but can't look past Argos, who they will host Friday at 4:30 p.m. for a doubleheader.
"Both of those games will be very important for us to get some momentum," said O'Connell. "We're not that far down. Warsaw is a powerful team but we're not that far down. If we can sweep Argos then we can get some momentum."
Warsaw plays Elkhart Central at 1 p.m. Monday in the Elkhart Memorial Sectional but must travel to Rochester tonight to play the Zebras at 4:30 p.m.
"We have to take care of business in Rochester first and not look past them," said Shepherd. "We need to make sure we're ready to play."
WARSAW 8, TIPPECANOE VALLEY 0
Valley ab r h rbi
Cunningham c 3 0 1 0
Mikel cf 3 0 1 0
Deardorff 3b 3 0 1 0
Hutchison dh 3 0 2 0
Eby lf 3 0 1 0
Shilling rf 3 0 1 0
Backus ss 2 0 0 0
Cox 1b 3 0 1 0
Swanson p 2 0 1 0
Day 1 0 0 0
Totals 26 0 9 0
Warsaw ab r h rbi
Riley cf 3 2 1 0
Walmer ss 4 1 1 0
Barrett rf 4 1 2 2
Siebenmorgen c 2 0 1 1
Nelson 1b 3 0 1 0
Stanley 3b 4 0 2 1
Leininger dh 3 0 1 0
Sherman 2b 4 0 0 0
Kennedy lf 2 1 0 0
Grubbs 1 1 1 0
Totals 31 8 10 4
Valley 000 000 0 - 0 9 7
Warsaw 011 033 x - 8 10 1
2B - Siebenmorgen, Stanley, Nelson, Riley. 3B - Shilling. HR - Barrett
IP H R ER BB SO
Valley
Swanson, L 6 10 8 8 3 4
Warsaw
Grimm, W 7 9 0 0 0 6
