It may not have been the prettiest win, but it was a win nonetheless.
On a nearly ideal spring afternoon, Warsaw Community High School's varsity baseball team overcame a pair of errors and some base-running miscues to beat visiting Northern Lakes Conference foe Elkhart Memorial 3-2 Monday."It wasn't the prettiest win, but we had enough offense to get a win today," said Warsaw coach Mike Hepler. "We had a couple errors and a few blunders on the base paths, but that's baseball. We'll take the win."
And with the the one-run victory, the Class 4A No. 8 Tigers upped their winning streak to seven games, improving to 13-2 overall and 5-1 in the NLC. Memorial fell to 9-7 overall and 4-3 in conference play.
"We've got a great group of guys, and I know they'll keep a level head," Hepler said of the Tigers getting off to the successful start they have. "It's cliche, but we're just going to play them one at a time, play hard and see what happens."
Warsaw is alone atop the conference standings, followed by Concord (5-2), Memorial (4-3), Wawasee (3-3), Northridge (3-4), Plymouth (3-4) and Goshen (2-5).
In picking up their latest win, the Tigers scored two runs in the bottom of the first inning on a two-out, two-run double by senior Josh Miller.
"Miller's two-out double was huge," said Hepler. "We needed a strong start, and we got that with his double. He's been doing that all season. He's come up big for us."
Junior James Miglin also came up big for the Tigers.
After the Crimson Chargers tied the game by scoring a run in the third inning and another in the fourth, Miglin led off the home half of the fourth by sending the first pitch from Memorial sophomore Wade Williams over the fence.
"That allowed us to relax," Hepler said of Miglin's home run, which turned out to be the game-winning hit. "We let them score on an error, and then James takes the first pitch out of the park. It really allowed us to relax. He (Miglin) needed it for his confidence, and we needed it, too. So it really worked out for us."
The Tigers managed just four hits off Williams. Junior Josh Witt and senior Chris Utley each added a single for Warsaw.
To go with timely hits - which Warsaw certainly benefited from Monday - pitching has been one of the Tigers' strengths this season.
Senior Chase Byerly improved his record on the mound this season to 5-0 Monday after working all seven innings. He gave up seven hits, struck out five and walked one.
Byerly worked his way out of bases-loaded situations in both the third and fourth innings to keep his pitching record perfect.
"He fell out of his rhythm a little but, but he was able to work his way out of some jams," Hepler said of Byerly. "We made plays when we had to."
Williams took the loss for Memorial. In six innings of work, he gave up four hits and four walks and struck out four.
The Tigers are in action again Wednesday when they host NLC rival Wawasee. Because Warsaw's first game with Wawasee was rescheduled, the Tigers will play at Wawasee Thursday.
