AKRON - The Wawasee Warriors baseball team had every reason to believe it would be advancing to the second round of the Class 3A, Sectional 21 at Tippecanoe Valley High School.
The Warriors had already defeated the Round 1 opponent, the Columbia City Eagles, 9-0 earlier this season, and they had their ace on the mound.
The outcome looked even more predictable when Wawasee went on top 2-0 in the second inning of Friday's game, but the seven-win Eagles weren't giving in.
Following an RBI-single by junior Joey Melendez in the second inning, Wawasee got just one more hit in the next five innings, but committed five errors in that span, resulting in an 8-2 loss.
"We made errors," Wawasee coach John Blunk said. "When you make errors, you lose. It's the simplest way I can put it."
On top of committing the errors, Wawasee senior left-hander Jake Golden-berg also walked three and hit one batter in five innings of work, with junior reliever Phillip Fleagle walking two and hitting another in his one inning.
In Goldenberg's first matchup against the Eagles, he struck out 14 in the 9-0 win at Syracuse on April 16, and looked strong early on in the sectional game.
"He's as good as we've seen all year," Columbia City coach Todd Armstrong said of Goldenberg, who had nine strikeouts in the game. "I knew coming into this, that it would be a true challenge to match up."
Striking out five of the first six batters he faced, Goldenberg didn't allow a baserunner until Eagles sophomore Blake Creech reached on an error to open the fourth inning.
Following a strike out, Goldenberg walked senior Jamie Parrett, which was followed by a groundout that advanced the two on to second and third base.
Spending a lot of time watching Creech, and his always-flinching elbow, Goldenberg was called for a balk, allowing Columbia City to score its first run without even getting a hit, and cutting the lead to 2-1.
After getting out of the fourth, things got worse in the fifth.
In the fifth inning, the Eagles scored five runs on two hits, but saw Wawasee commit three errors, increasing their lead to 6-2.
"A lot of that was because we put pressure on them," Armstrong said about the errors. "We bunted the ball, and as a result, they threw it around."
Along with the errors, the inning featured two walks a hit batter and a bunt single.
"They made the plays, and we didn't," Blunk said.
While the defense wasn't making plays, the bats weren't doing too much either.
After Goldenberg hit an RBI-double in the second, followed by Melendez's RBI-single, it appeared the Warriors would have an easy going against Columbia City's junior pitcher Braden Emerick.
On the contrary, Emerick only gave up a leadoff double by senior Hayden Shock in the fifth inning the rest of the way.
"He just got better," Blunk said of the Columbia City pitcher. "He pitched one heck of a game. He moved the ball around, and we didn't go up there looking for our pitch."
And after his team grabbed the 6-2 lead in the fifth, plus adding two more in the sixth, Emerick retired the last six batters he faced, striking out three and getting the other three out on ground balls.
"He's been good all year," Armstrong said of his pitcher. "His record wouldn't reflect it, because he's only 3-5. He's been kind of hard luck. He had a no-hitter with four outs to go, but ended up losing a game. He lost to DeKalb 2-1. He's lost a lot of close decisions."
The loss ends the Warriors season at 15-11-1, and ends the careers of three seniors that will go on to play in college, with Goldenberg and Jose Rodriguez going to Wabash Valley College and Mike Milligan signed on to play at Goshen College.
"We're going to have a meeting on Monday, and we'll talk there," Blunk said. "Today wasn't the time to do it."
The 8-20 Eagles will now face Tippecanoe Valley and another standout lefty in freshman James Hackworth Monday at 5 p.m.
Hackworth will take a 0.56 ERA into the game, as he's struck out 95 and walked 19 to carry a 5-1 record.
"Tippy's a good ball club," Armstrong said. "We know that. If we play well, we'll win, if we don't we won't. They expect to win. It's they're home field, and they've got the kid on the mound that's pretty good, in the Hackworth kid. We know about that. There aren't a whole of surprises. We'll hook up, and whoever makes the least number of mistakes will win."
