MISHAWAKA – Facing the defending state champions and a Division I recruit on the mound, Warsaw’s baseball team got off to a great start at the plate Thursday night. It quickly ended, though, as did the Tigers’ season in a 10-0, 6-inning loss to No. 6 Penn in Class 4A sectional action at Penn High School. Though playing on their home field, the Kingsmen – by IHSAA draw – were the visiting team. Penn scored two runs in the top of the first inning on a single by junior Nikolos Kavadas. Unfazed by senior Skylar Szynski’s 90-plus mile per hour fastball, the Tigers opened the home half of the first with singles by senior Sterling Hay, junior Jordan Steffensmeier and senior Zach Witt. With the bases loaded and no outs, senior Marselo Rodriguez laced a shot right back at Szynski, an Indiana University recruit, whose glove came off while knocking the laser down. Szynski recovered and instinctively tossed the ball to catcher Nolan Metcalf for the force out at home. Szynski then got junior Henry Howard to ground into a double play to end the frame unscathed. After facing five batters in the first inning, Szynski faced just a total of 18 batters in his five innings of work. He struck out seven and didn’t issue a walk, while giving up just the three hits to start the bottom of the first inning. “We had good approaches in the first inning on his fastball,” said Warsaw coach Mike Hepler, whose team won the Northern Lakes Conference with a 10-4 record and finished the season 14-12 overall. “When we couldn’t get a run across, bases loaded and no outs, you could feel that momentum turn. He’s a good pitcher, coached well, and they made a lot of adjustments on us at the plate. He started throwing the breaking pitch down in the dirt, and we were going for it. I think we had two baserunners after the first inning. They really adjusted well to what we were doing on our approach.” The Tigers, in fact, did only have two guys reach base after the first inning – junior Braxton Tennant, who reached on an error while leading off in the second inning, and Hay, who singled off reliever Richard Green while leading off in the sixth. “Skylar was pumped up the first inning,” said Penn coach Greg Dikos, whose team beat Terre Haute North 3-2 in last year’s state championship game and improved to 25-4 Thursday. “Warsaw was geared up for the fastball, and they were on top of it. The first three guys hit the crap out of it. I just felt Skylar was going to wear them down, and he did a better job changing speeds after the first inning. He was just trying to throw that curve ball too hard. Warsaw did a really nice job staying on top of it.” In his five innings of work, Szynski threw 60 pitches – 43 of which were strikes, as a number of scouts with radar guns were lined up behind home plate. After scoring twice in the first inning, the Kingsmen added a run in the fourth and another in the fifth. Penn invoked the run-rule by plating six in the sixth, an inning in which the Tigers dropped a pair of deep fly balls that allowed the Kingsmen to score. “They’re a good team, and we didn’t play anywhere near our best game tonight,” said Hepler. “We had some mistakes in the field. It was one of those things ... it was just a tough night for us.” The Tigers committed four errors in the game, while Penn was charged with one. Penn pounded out 13 hits in the win. Junior Matthew Kominkiewicz and senior Luke Schneider had three hits each. Senior Riley Lau, Schneider and Metcalf all hit doubles in the win. Witt was charged with the loss on the mound after giving up 13 hits and 10 runs in 5-1/3 innings. Witt, who faced 32 batters and threw 115 pitches, walked four and struck out two. In Thursday’s first game, Northridge beat Elkhart Central 7-3 in nine innings. In Saturday’s 10 a.m. sectional semifinal, Concord (who drew the bye) will face Elkhart Memorial, a winner over Goshen in Wednesday’s opener. Penn and Northridge will square off at approximately 12:30 p.m. Saturday. The championship game is slated for 11 a.m. Monday.
PENN 10, WARSAW 0 (6 innings) P 200 116 – 10 13 1 W 000 000 – 0 4 4 Penn – Skylar Szynski (W, 5IP, 3H, 0R, 7K, 0BB), Richard Green (1IP, 1H, 0R, 0K, 0BB); Warsaw – Zach Witt (L, 5-1/3IP, 13H, 10R, 6ER, 4K, 2BB), Jordan Jones (1IP, 0H, 0R, 0K, 0BB). 2B – Nolan Metcalf (P), Ryan Lau (P), Luke Schneider (P) Records: Penn 25-4, Warsaw 14-12
