A battle of Northern Lakes Conference heavyweights, Wednesday's high school baseball game between the Warsaw Tigers and Northridge Raiders turned into a slugfest.
The Raiders came out swinging, taking a 5-1 lead, and then delivered the knockout punch in the sixth inning as they beat the host Tigers 12-7."They're a good ball club," Warsaw coach Mike Hepler said of Northridge. "These teams always compete hard against each other."
Winning Tuesday's slugfest, which saw the teams combine for 28 hits and 19 runs, kept the Raides atop the standings in the NLC.
Northridge is now 10-2 overall and 5-0 in conference play, while Warsaw fell to 6-2 overall and 4-1 in the NLC.
The Raiders and Tigers shared the conference championship last season, and then Northridge ended Warsaw's season in the sectional.
"I haven't seen (Elkhart) Memorial play yet, but I'd say these are the two best teams in the conference," Hepler said of Northridge and Warsaw. "I think it'll be a good battle the next time we play them. There's a lot of baseball between now and then, I'm not gonna look too far ahead."
Memorial, which hosts the Tigers Monday, is also 5-0 in NLC action, while Plymouth and Goshen are both 3-2 and Wawasee, Concord and NorthWood have just one conference win between them.
In Tuesday's battle at Tiger Field, the Raiders led 5-1 after the top of the fourth inning.
In the home half of the inning, junior Joey Hickerson led off with a walk and later scored to cut the Raiders' lead to three.
The Tigers continued their comeback in the fifth inning, as senior pitcher James Miglin worked a perfect inning on the mound and then hit a two-run homer - scoring he and classmate Josh Witt, who led off with a single - to cut the deficit to one, 5-4.
With Warsaw back in the game, Northridge delivered the knockout punch in the sixth inning, scoring seven runs, the final two runs coming on a home run by Dominic Devito.
The Tigers added three runs of their own in the sixth inning and then put two guys on base in the seventh but couldn't capitalize.
"We were right there," said Hepler. "We battled. We just left too many guys in scoring position and didn't come up with that big hit. We didn't do the things that got us off to a 6-1 record. We didn't hit the ball like we're capable of. We didn't put pressure on their starting pitcher. We got hits and scored some runs, but we're a lot better team than we showed tonight."
Both teams pounded out 14 hits.
Brady Ousley, Steven Hanson, Hickerson and Miglin all had multiple hits for the Tigers.
Miglin led the way with a two-run homer and a double.
For Northridge, Garrett Yoder, Daimon Buck, Jordan Carithers, T.J. Miller and Devito all had multiple hits..
Gatlin Rassi, Carithers, Buck and Yoder all had doubles for the Raiders, while Devito led the way with his two-run blast.
Rassi worked four innings on the mound and was credited with the win. He gave up four runs, while walking three and striking out two.
Cameron Nord pitched the final three innings for the Raiders. He gave up three runs and four walks and struck out three.
For Warsaw, Miglin took the loss on the mound, giving up 12 hits and nine runs in five innings of work.
Aaron Christenberry and Nick Nunez also pitched for the Tigers, who are back in action tonight at Elkhart Central.
"We're a lot better team than we showed tonight," said Hepler. "There's a lot of baseball left. We'll be fine. This team has the pieces of a championship team. I'm really excited about this team."
NORTHRIDGE 12, WARSAW 7
N 102 207 0 - 12 14 2
W 001 123 0 - 7 14 1
Batteries - Gatlin Rassi (W), Cameron Nord and Dominic Devito; James Miglin (L), Aaron Christenberry, Nick Nunez and Taylor Franzen.
2B - Garrett Yoder (NR), Daimon Buck (NR), Gatlin Rassi (NR), Jordan Carithers (NR), James Miglin (War)
