It wasn't an offensive showcase, but the Warsaw Tigers will take it.
Opening the season with a 1-0 win over the visiting Huntington North Vikings Monday, the Tigers capitalized on a defensive lapse.
Tied at 0-0, Warsaw senior Jacob Bloom scored from third base when a pitch from Vikings senior Billy Ray got away from sophomore catcher Trevor West, resulting in a passed ball.
"We'll take it," Warsaw coach Mike Hepler said. "At this point in the season, anyway we can win, we'll take it."
The season-opener for both teams didn't involve too many spectacular moments, as the pitchers for both sides seemed to be in control.
In the loss, Huntington North's Wes Carroll and Ray combined to surrender five hits and strike out five, but the breaks just weren't with them.
"The two guys that threw today did a great job," Huntington North coach Russ Degitz said. "Obviously, anytime you can get a 1-0 ballgame with metal bats in high school, your pitchers are doing something right."
And outside of giving up a winning run on a passed ball, the Viking pitchers also saw a run taken away from them on the base paths.
With the score still at 0-0 in the top of the fourth, the Vikings had junior Brett Wiley at third and senior Jamon Hammel at first with one out. Following a deep fly out by sophomore Adam Wilson, Wiley appeared to have an easy run, but after falling on his way home, he had to retreat back to third.
"It's a weird thing that happens early in the season," Degitz said.
A batter later, Byerly struck out junior Kameron Smith, putting an end to the threat.
The Smith strikeout was also Byerly's last batter, but he did his job, pitching five shutout innings, striking out five along the way.
"Those were big pitches, and that's what quality pitchers do," Hepler said about Byerly getting the last batter in the fourth. "When they get themselves in jams, they come up with that strikeout when they need it - they don't get rattled."
With Byerly finished, junior Josh Witt entered the game to start the fifth, promptly walking Vikings sophomore Cole Bowman. And after Wiley reached on an error , Witt found himself with runners at first and second with no outs.
From there, all Witt did was strike out the next two batters before inducing a groundout, getting him out of the inning.
"Warsaw won the game, and played wonderfully," Degitz said. "They're a great team, well-coached and do things the right way. But, at the same time, we lost our opportunities. We couldn't advance runners by bunting, which is part of our game.
"I'm just frustrated with our lack of execution on offense," he added.
On the Warsaw side, Hepler was pleased to get the season started with a 1-0 record, but believes his guys can play better.
"We needed to get this game under our belt," Hepler said. "When Wednesday comes, and we play (South Bend) Clay, we'll have a little bit better outing."
Warsaw and Clay are slated to begin play at 5 p.m. Wednesday at Warsaw Community High School.
WARSAW 1,
HUNTINGTON NORTH 0
H 000 000 0 - 0 3 2
W 000 001 x - 1 5 2
Chase Byerly (5IP, 0R, 3H, 5K), Josh Witt (6, W, 2IP, 0R, 0H, 3K) and Josh Miller; Wes Carroll (4IP, 0R, 2H, 3K, 1BB), Billy Ray (5, L, 2IP, 1R, 1ER, 3H, 2K) and Trevor West
