ELKHART - A week after the Warsaw Tigers and Northridge Raiders shared the Northern Lakes Conference championship in baseball, only one of them still has a chance to win a sectional title.
The top two teams in the NLC opened play in Class 4A Sectional 4 Thursday at Elkhart Memorial High school, with the Raiders winning 9-2 and advancing to Saturday's semifinal game."Our kids wanted this game bad," said Northridge coach Andrew Brabender. "Warsaw cut our season short last year, so we wanted this game bad."
The win, the Raiders' second consecutive victory over the Tigers after Northridge beat Warsaw 10-1 last week to earn a share of the NLC, improved them to 18-8 on the season.
The Tigers finished the season by losing four of their final five games and wound up 19-8.
"We got off to a good start, our kids played with a lot of heart and played with a lot of effort," said Warsaw coach Mike Hepler. "This was definitely Northridge's day. They played better than we did. Congratulate them. I hope they go far."
Elkhart Memorial won Thursday's second game, beating city rival Central 7-2.
Northridge and Elkhart Memorial will play Saturday at 11 a.m., followed by Goshen and Concord.
Saturday's winners will play for the sectional championship Monday at 7:30 p.m.
After holding the Raiders scoreless in the top half of the first inning, the Tigers quickly put two runs on the board in the bottom of the inning and appeared to be well on their way to a strong offensive showing.
That just wasn't the case, and it was the Raiders who put together the offensive highlight reel.
"Our kids won't quit," said Brabender. "We've got eight seniors, six of whom start. We know we're a very good offensive team. Two runs is not going to beat us."
Helping his own cause, Northridge senior pitcher Cody Troyer started the second inning with a double and later scored on sophomore Garrett Yoder's double, which also scored senior Scot Troyer to tie the game at 2-2.
Yoder scored to give the Raiders a 3-2 advantage when Alex Summy reached on a Tiger error.
Warsaw senior pitcher Chase Byerly faced nine Northridge batters in the second inning.
"That second inning, Chase threw something like 40 pitches," said Hepler. "We struggled after we got out to a lead. "He threw a lot of pitches in that second inning, and then we had to get him out of there the next inning. He had already thrown about 80 pitches by that point."
Byerly left the mound, swithcing positions with junior shortstop Josh Witt, with two runners on base and no outs in the top of the fourth inning.
Byerly was saddled with the loss after pitching three innings, giving up five hits, five runs and two walks. He struck out three.
Byerly finished the season with a pitching record of 7-2.
"Northridge swung their bats and put it in play," said Hepler. "Today wasn't our day. They got hits and we didn't. That's baseball."
The Raiders pounded out 11 hits in the win, while Warsaw had five hits.
Junior catcher James Miglin pounded out three singles, accounting for 60 percent of Warsaw's hits.
Jacob Bloom hit a single for Warsaw, while Witt had the Tigers' only extra-base hit, ripping an RBI double in the first inning.
Daimon Buck, Cody Troyer and Yoder all hit doubles for the Raiders, while senior Dustin Peterson hit a solo home run in the seventh to give Northridge a 9-2 advantage.
Leading 5-2 after four innings of play, the Raiders added three more runs in the sixth inning before Peterson's blast.
Witt pitched four innings for the Tigers, giving up six hits and four runs. He struck out two and walked one.
Troyer worked all seven innings for Northridge, giving up five hits and two runs. He struck out eight Warsaw batters and improved his pitching record to 6-2 this season.
"I thought Cody pitched really well," said Brabender. "He's clearly our No. 1. He worked ahead (in the count) like he does. He's not over-powering, he just throws pitches for strikes."
The Tigers enjoyed one of their most successful regular seasons in recent memory. Two weeks ago, Warsaw was 18-4 and ranked in the Class 4A polls.
Now Hepler must say goodbe to a talented senior class that includes Blayke Kaufman, Nate Daughenbaugh, Justin Ousley, Cody Kindle, Josh Miller, Chris Utley, Bloom and Byerly.
"I'd keep them all if I could," Hepler said of his seniors. "This is a great group of kids. They led us all year long and set a great example. They did things the right way. I can't believe it's over. They did a great job."
