Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
SYRACUSE - Don't be fooled by what baseball coaches say. The difference between successful pitching and not so successful is an easy concept to grasp.
The fewer batters a pitcher can walk, the better chance of winning a game.
That was the difference between Warsaw and Wawasee Monday in the Northern Lakes Conference opener on the diamond for both teams.
The Warriors' left-hander, Rod Holterman, was able to throw strikes and struck out seven, walking only two batters. The Tigers' right-hander, Evan Miller, was not able to throw strikes and walked 13 batters.
The result, a 5-2 Warriors' win.
"We walked too many in our loss to Columbia City (Friday), it was good for another pitcher to blow up," Wawasee coach John Blunk said.
Miller opened up by walking Wawasee's first three batters of the game and four of the first five to force in an early run and 1-0 Wawasee lead. The Tigers escaped the inning down only the one run, but the tempo was set.
"Evan had been doing a good job for us," Warsaw coach Will Shepherd said. "Tonight he wasn't ready to pitch mentally or physically, and that is a huge disappointment to our staff and our team."
Warsaw tied the score in the third inning on a single by Craig Thomas, but Wawasee capitalized on a double by Josh Mitchell and two more walks in the fourth to take a 2-1 lead. Wawasee would tack on two runs more in the fifth and another one in the sixth, both innings getting two walks to help its cause.
"They just did a better job of playing baseball," Shepherd said. "Their tempo was better, and they deserved to win the game."
On the other side of the coin, Holterman was keeping Warsaw off balance by moving the ball around in the strike zone. And when a runner would reach base, he was even tougher. Warsaw sent only four batters to the plate in six of the seven innings, and the other one the Tigers sent five, and they scored their lone run.
Holterman upped his record to 3-0 on the season and improved on his 1.08 earned-run average in the process. He now has all three of Wawasee's wins this season.
"Rod threw a great game," Blunk said. "I thought Miller pitched well, other than the walks. He is going to be a dominating pitcher in this conference. He just does not have the varsity experience."
Shepherd liked what he saw in Holterman as well.
"I am impressed with the Holterman kid," Shepherd said. "He did a nice job of not walking us, making us swing the bat, and keeping it away from us when he had to."
The down side of receiving all the walks for the Warriors was the fact that they left 13 runners on base, including the bases loaded in the third and fourth innings and scoring only one run in both innings combined. Wawasee managed only four hits off of Miller.
"That is too many," Blunk said of the 13 runners left on base. "We can't do that. We got the hits this time when we needed them. We still need to execute better.
"We didn't execute early," he said. "If we could have gotten some of our late hits early in the game, it would have been over earlier, maybe in five (innings)."
With the win, the Warriors snap a two-game losing streak and for now are on top of the NLC.
"I am happy with the win," Blunk said. "It is always nice to beat Warsaw, but it is nice to win, period."
Centerfielder Sam Wihebrink, hitting in the No. 9 position in the order, led Warsaw with three hits, including a triple. He was thrown out at home trying to stretch it to an inside-the-park home run.
"I felt he (Wihebrink) was thinking and concentrating of using his speed in the game," Shepherd said. "If we can get Sam doing something for us down there in the nine spot, it really put some problems on the defense. It would be a weapon that would be nice to have."
Warsaw (3-5, 0-1) hosts Goshen Wednesday.
"Here we are 0-1 in the conference, looking up the hill because we have Goshen coming in Wednesday and the big red (Plymouth) coming Friday," Shepherd said. "It is not going to get any easier for us. We are going to hopefully learn from this."
Wawasee (3-2, 1-0) is at Fairfield Wednesday.
