Those three words, Warsaw Community High School baseball coach Mike Hepler said, have become the Tigers' battle cry.
Warsaw certainly answered the call Monday afternoon in the opening round of the Elkhart Memorial Sectional.The Tigers turned in a memorable fifth-inning performance en route to beating Northern Lakes Conference foe Northridge 12-9, advancing them to Wednesday's 5 p.m. semifinal game against Goshen.
The Redskins advanced by beating Concord 12-7 in Monday's first game.
Wednesday's other semifinal game will feature Elkhart Central and Elkhart Memorial, with the two semifinal winners playing in Friday evening's championship game.
After the Tigers took a 3-0 lead in the first inning, two of the runs coming via a towering home run over the right-centerfield fence by senior Daniel Conrad, the Raiders scored a total of seven runs off Warsaw starting pitcher Chase Byerly in the second and third innings.
Northridge added another run in the top of the fifth inning, taking what looked like a commanding 8-3 lead over a team the Raiders had already beat twice this season.
And then Hepler barked at his players asking them, "Why not us?"
"It's been our battle cry the last few weeks," said Hepler, whose team improved to 16-11 while Northridge finished the season 24-4. "I wanted them to relax, we had nothing to lose. I just wanted to go out there and play."
What Hepler's players did was pound out eight hits and plate nine runs in the fifth inning, proving they could play, and ultimately beat, a team that had already scored a 7-0 and a 7-2 win over them this season.
"I'm so proud of my players," said Hepler. "That was a great effort, they never gave up. They battled hard in the fifth inning. Northridge is a very good ball club. There's a reason they were 13-1 in the conference."
While the NLC championship belongs to Northridge, the sectional championship won't.
The Tigers, however, are still very much in the running for that.
Blayke Kauffman and Jeff Himes led off the bottom of the fifth inning with singles and later scored when Conrad reached on an error, cutting Northridge's lead to 8-5.
James Miglin came through with a double, and then Braden Kline knotted the game at 8-8 with a three-run blast off Lincoln Rassi, who was then replaced on the mound by Chris Whitten.
Josh Miller, the first Tiger batter Whitten faced, kept things going with a no-out single and later scored to give Warsaw a 9-8 lead.
Before the fifth-inning onslaught was over, Jacob Bloom and Himes added doubles, as the Tigers took a 12-8 lead.
"The flood gates opened in that fifth inning," said Hepler. "We were able to hit a bunch of our guys home. The guys came up with some big hits in the fifth inning. I'm very proud of them."
With the offensive firepower in the fifth inning, the Tigers were able to help out Byerly, who left the game in the third inning.
Byerly gave up seven runs and seven hits in 2-1/3 innings of work and hit three Northridge batters.
When he left the game, things looked a little bleak for the Tigers, that all changed with the fifth inning offensive burst and some clutch pitching by Josh Witt and Miglin.
Witt worked the third, fourth and fifth innings, while Miglin was on the hill for the sixth and seventh innings.
"Chase wasn't feeling well, the heat was getting to him," said Hepler. "Whitt wasn't himself, but he labored for us and was there for us. And then James Miglin came in and was Mr. Calm for us. He showed a lot of poise. Chase is only a junior and Witt and Miglin are only sophomores, so we're really excited about having those guys around a couple more years."
Kauffman, Himes, Conrad and Miller all had two hits for the Tigers.
Kyle Bachman, Dustin Petersen, Eli Fuentes and Alex Summy led the Raiders with two hits each.
Summy had a three-run inside the park home run for Northridge in the third inning and added a triple in the fifth inning.
WARSAW 12, NORTHRIDGE 9
N 034 010 0 - 9
W 300 090 X - 12
Chase Byerly, Josh Witt (W, 5-3), James Miglin and Braden Kline; Lincoln Rassi, Chris Whitten (L) and Luke Hoffsommer
2B - Miglin (W), Josh Miller (W), Witt (W), Eli Fuentes (N), Brandon Wingard (N)
