LAGRANGE – The big inning has played a role in virtually every Wawasee baseball game this season, whether in a win or a loss. Facing Tippecanoe Valley and arguably the best pitching staff in the Class 3A Lakeland Sectional, the odds were against the Warriors. So much for the odds. Wawasee scored five times in the second inning, knocking out Valley starter Luke Helton in the process. Then the Warriors came up with four insurance runs against reliever Alec Craig to take a 10-4 win over the Vikings Wednesday night. The first rally started when Wawasee loaded the bases without a hit. A hit batsman, a walk and a catcher’s interference call put a Warrior on every bag to open the inning. Helton struck out Spencer Prescott for the first out, but then gave up RBI singles to Gavin Barker and Rieder Hunley before Valley coach Justin Branock pulled Helton in favor of ace lefty Eric Hammer. “At that point I wanted to be sure I didn’t use both pitchers up, in case we had a game on Friday,” Branock said. “(Helton’s) pitch count was climbing fast, and I knew if I was going to have to use two guys today, that I needed somebody to be able to come back on Friday. So my thought was ‘he’s not at his best today, and I have Eric Hammer standing at first base. Maybe he’s got something a little better today.’” Hammer struck out the first batter he faced, but then uncorked a wild pitch to allow a run to score. Wawasee senior Chase Rookstool, the ninth hitter of the inning, battled with Hammer, fouling off several pitches and working the count full before grounding a seeing-eye single to right, driving in the last two runs of the frame. Hammer settled down some, but had streaks of wildness. He allowed just one run and struck out seven in 4-2/3 innings of relief, but walked seven and uncorked four wild pitches. Valley never retired Wawasee in order, and the Warriors had at least five hitters in every inning except the first. The Warriors put together a total team effort, with eight different players getting at least one hit, and every starter reaching base twice. Wawasee did commit three fielding errors, but limited the damage each time. “We made our own luck, too. We had some big two-out hits, some two-strike hits, played some good defense and got some great pitching, too,” Wawasee head coach Brent Doty said. “Taking nothing from Valley; they have two great pitchers that we saw tonight. We just came out, we were aggressive, had a good game plan, and got the job done. It’s all on the players tonight. “Everybody contributed, from courtesy runners getting great secondary leads and scoring, playing great defense all around, we pitched well and got timely hitting. That’s what we needed all year, and this is a great win.” On the other side, Valley went down in order only once, but never put together a big rally against Wawasee senior righthander Lucas Garza. The four runs Wawasee scored in the top of the seventh loomed large when Valley loaded the bases in the bottom of the inning. For the game, the Vikings left 12 runners stranded, including leaving the bases loaded in the first and seventh innings. “We left a lot of base runners out there,” Branock said. “The ball didn’t bounce our way a few times, and we had a lot of hard hits that went right to ‘em. They made a couple of plays when we hit the ball to left field and the guy catches it after a bad route to it; if that gets over his head that’s two more runs. “It was one of those days at the baseball field that you just don’t enjoy because it seemed like the ball wasn’t going to bounce our way.” Wawasee advanced to the sectional semifinal and will face Northern Lakes Conference foe NorthWood, an 8-0 winner over West Noble in Wednesday’s second game. Friday’s semifinal game will be the third matchup between the Panthers and Warriors this year, with NorthWood coming out on top in the first two. First pitch is scheduled for 5 p.m.
WAWASEE 10, TIPPECANOE VALLEY 4 W 050 001 4 – 10 13 3 TV 001 002 1 – 4 7 1 Wawasee – Lucas Garza (W, 6-plus IP, 6H, 4R, 3ER, 2BB, 3K), Jacob Garcia (1 IP, 1H, 0R, 0ER, 1BB, 2K) Valley – Luke Helton (L, 1.1 IP, 3H, 5R, 5ER, 1BB, 2K), Eric Hammer (4.2IP, 5H, 1R, 1ER, 7BB, 7K), Alec Craig (1 IP, 4H, 4R, 4ER, 2BB, 1K) 2B – Gavin Bussard (TV), Garza (W), Brandon Webster (TV) Records: Wawasee 8-19-1, Valley 15-9
