NAPPANEE – A thrown bat and an umpire’s call were key factors in Wawasee’s first Northern Lakes Conference softball loss of the season, as the Lady Warriors fell 2-1 at NorthWood Tuesday night. In a sixth-inning scoreless tie, Allissa Flores stepped to the plate with two on and nobody out. Flores drove an 0-1 pitch over the left field fence, appearing to give Wawasee a 3-0 lead. Emotions on the Wawasee side shifted quickly when the home plate umpire called Flores out for throwing her bat after making contact. The call wasn’t heard until Flores had rounded second base. The umpire came out to a spot between third base and the pitchers circle, and explained the call to Wawasee head coach Jared Knipper. “(Flores) had been warned a couple of times this year, and that shouldn’t have come as a big surprise,” said Knipper. “It takes a lot of stones to make that call on a three-run home run. “That’s a game-changing play right there. The momentum is in our favor, and to have somebody take the wind out of your sails is pretty bad. “We’ve talked to the girls before about not letting an umpire dictate the outcome of a game. And to be honest, we didn’t play well enough to win, and didn’t play like we should tonight. And that’s what it boils down to; this game should never be 2-1. Our bats have been cold for about three games now, and now we have three or four games left to get it turned around.” Wawasee did manage three doubles in the game, including one from Flores in the first inning. Paige Hlutke doubled to lead off the fourth, but was cut down at the plate on one of three double plays turned by the Lady Panthers. After the Flores call, NorthWood broke out on top when Summer Stillson beat out an infield single, advanced to second on a groundout, and scored on an error. Wawasee tied it in the top of the seventh when Kylee Rostochak doubled into the left field corner, and scored on maddie Wilson’s ground ball single up the middle. The Lady Warriors left runners stranded at second and third in the inning. The game winner scored after Claire McGuire got a leadoff walk on a 3-2 pitch, was sacrificed to second, moved to third on a groundout, and scored on a wild pitch from Meghan Fritz. It was Fretz’d only mistake of the evening; she allowed only the one hit, walked three and struck out 10. “She threw a one-hitter. I mean, what do you do?” said Knipper. “But we’ve got to score more runs than that. We’ve produced a lot more runs than that all season. “It hurts having (Danielle) Gunkel out with a shoulder injury; she’s produced 60 runs for us this year, and that’s huge in a game like this when it’s close and someone can break it open. Flores is the same way; she usually breaks a game open for us, and (Tuesday) she had her opportunity taken away from her.” With the loss, the Lady Warriors fell to 8-1 in the Northern Lakes Conference and 15-4 overall. NorthWood is now 5-4 in the conference and 14-7 overall. Thanks to recent rainouts, the Lady Warriors will play the second of four straight days this afternoon when they host Northridge.
