Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
The Warsaw Tigers softball team christened their temporary homestead and opened the season with a 3-0 win over Carroll (Fort Wayne) Monday.
Warsaw will be playing all of its home games at the CCAC this spring while construction continues at Warsaw Community High School.
The Tigers may have found a pitching ace as they rode the impressive performance of freshman Kelcy Martin. Martin, making her high school debut, overcame some control issues early and gave up just one hit while striking out 11 in a complete game seven-inning effort.
"It's nice this year that we have some strikeout power. It was nice to see our pitcher come out as a freshman, she was probably a little nervous, and do a fantastic job. The team really got behind her and pumped her up," said Warsaw head coach Scott Freds.
The one hit came from the bat of Carroll's Delaney Selby with two outs in the top of the fourth inning. Selby smashed a double to the left-center fence, then later advanced to third on a passed ball.
Martin's pitching counterpart, Mallory Miller, then reached on a walk to put runners at the corners with two outs. The inning ended when Miller was called for interfering with Warsaw second baseman Brit Clark's attempt to field a Jil Price grounder.
Warsaw opened up the scoring in the bottom half of the fourth inning as leadoff hitter Tera Clark laid down a perfect bunt to reach safely. After Allison Shepherd flew out deep to center field, Brit Clark laid down a textbook bunt similar to her sister's.
Catcher Star Gonzalez loaded the bases with a seeing-eye single, and senior first baseman Mallory Hepler drove in the first run of Warsaw's season when she grounded a ball to Carroll shortstop Lisa Albright, who didn't field the ball cleanly in her attempt to get the force out at second.
Hepler reached on the fielder's choice and E6 as Tera Clark scored.
The Tigers moved their lead to 2-0 when Brit Clark scored on a passed ball.
Warsaw capped its scoring in the next inning as Courtney Parker reached on a walk then scored from first base after Carroll catcher Amber Albright committed a throwing error on a swinging bunt by Shepherd.
Miller came out of the game after the fifth inning as Price took the mound to finish the contest. Miller lacked the strikeout punch that Martin had but was able to sit down six batters. Price worked a perfect sixth inning.
The Tigers finished with just three hits but were effective at putting the ball in play.
"We don't strike out very much but we do need to work on driving the ball, making contact and our bunting, but it's early and we'll get better at that," said Freds.
Defensively, Martin was aided by solid play from Gonzalez at the catcher position and a speedy infield that kept the few balls hit into play in the infield.
Speed looks to be a positive for the Tigers this year.
"Overall, team speed, foot speed, arm speed, bat speed, we are so much further along than we were last year," said Freds.
Martin seemed to gain arm speed as the game wore on. Martin struck out the side in the sixth inning then struck out Stacie Hoch to end the game.
After a near-20 pitch first inning, Martin was able to control her fastball and effectively move the ball around the plate.
The Tigers, 1-0, are off until April 6 when they travel to Mishawaka to take on a tough Cavemen squad.
WARSAW 3, FW CARROLL 0
Carroll
AB R H RBI
Maples 2 0 0 0
Oswald 3 0 0 0
McCann 2 0 0 0
Myers 1 0 0 0
Albright 3 0 0 0
Selby 3 0 1 0
Miller 0 0 0 0
Bowman 1 0 0 0
Price 3 0 0 0
Hoch 3 0 0 0
Albright 1 0 0 0
Totals 22 0 1 0
Warsaw
AB R H RBI
T. Clark 3 1 1 0
Shepherd 3 0 0 0
B. Clark 3 1 1 0
Gonzalez 3 0 1 0
Hepler 3 0 0 1
Rader 3 0 0 0
Kiser 2 0 0 0
Parker 2 1 0 0
Martin 1 0 0 0
Conley 1 0 0 0
Totals 24 3 3 1
Carroll (0-1, 0-0) 000 000 0 - 0 1 3
Warsaw (1-0, 0-0) 000 210 X - 3 3 0
2B - Selby. HR - None.
IP H R ER BB HB SO
Carroll
Miller (L, 0-1) 5 3 3 3 1 0 6
Price 1 0 0 0 0 0 1
Warsaw
Martin (W, 1-0) 7 1 0 0 2 2 11
JV - Warsaw 10, Carroll 0 (6 innings)
