SYRACUSE - On an uncommonly nice March afternoon, the Wawasee High School baseball team took advantage of the weather and the Bethany Christian Bruins.
Opening their 2010 season at home Tuesday, the Warriors got at least one hit from seven different players in a 5-1 victory."Everybody contributed," Wawasee coach John Blunk said. "A couple guys are mad at themselves, because they didn't come through when they could have. But hey, some made defensive plays."
The one making the most noteworthy defensive plays was sophomore Jordan Schmitt at second base.
In the top of the first, Schmitt saved a run with a sliding stop of a hard ground-out by Bruins junior Scott Weaver. Instead of driving in junior Ben Bontreger from second, the hard-hit ball become a third out thanks to Schmitt's play.
Again in the sixth inning, Schmitt had to get his uniform dirty, this time robbing Bontreger of a hit.
"He played outstanding at second base," Blunk said of Schmitt. "He's our normal shortstop playing second base right now, because we're trying to make sure his arm doesn't hurt. I really thought Jordan came through."
At the plate, junior Josh Dingeldein came through, going 3 for 3 with two RBIs, a run and a stolen base.
"That was a great start for Josh, because he's been in a slump," Blunk said. "He's the hitting star."
The hitting star put Wawasee's first run of the season on the board with a two-out triple in the bottom of the third, scoring senior Keegan Beer and knotting the score at 1-1.
Beer was a part of Wawasee's second score, when, with the bases loaded, his routine pop out in the infield was dropped by Bethany's third baseman, scoring Schmitt from third.
Sophomore Si Shear gave the Warriors an insurance run in the fifth, coming up with a two-out triple that scored Dingeldein and gave Wawasee a 3-1 lead.
Already in front by two, Wawasee added another two runs on Bethany relief pitcher Weaver in the sixth, with Dingeldein and sophomore John Beer hitting back-to-back two-out, RBI-singles, scoring junior Cody Blunk and Beer, respectively.
Despite coming up with nine hits in all, and six coming with two outs, Blunk credited his defense with the season-opening win.
"Defense won this game more than our hitting, more than our offense," he said. "Our defense won. (Sophomore) Joseph (Fleagle) battled for six innings, and then (Jake Sommers) came and threw (in the seventh)."
Wawasee now prepares to host Manchester Thursday at 5 p.m.
A year ago, Wawasee built a 9-0 lead on Manchester, before giving up nine straight runs, resulting in a 9-9 tie.
In that game, Wawasee roughed up Manchester pitcher Scott Baker, scoring eight runs in 1-1/3 innings. However, after that game, Baker got into his groove, finishing the season at 5-3, surrendering 41 hits in 52-2/3 innings, carrying a 2.36 ERA.
"Manchester will be another big test for us," Blunk said. "They have Scott Baker. We've faced him before, but we have to be able to hit him."
WAWASEE 5, BETHANY CHRISTIAN 1
B 010 000 0 - 1 3 2
W 001 112 x - 5 9 0
Joseph Fleagle (W, 1-0, 6IP, 1R, 1ER, 3H, 4K, 5BB), Jake Sommers (7, 1IP, 2K) and Si Shear; Mike Kelly (L, 5IP, 3R, 2ER, 7H, 2K, 3BB), Scott Weaver (6, 1IP, 2R, 2ER, 2H, 1K, 1BB, 1HB) and Tim Beechy
