Wawasee Picks Up Second Straight Win
GOSHEN – They say revenge is a dish best served cold. So the chilly breeze was fitting Monday night at Shanklin Park. The Lady Warriors claimed a 3-1 victory over Goshen, avenging a 12-1 defeat at the hands of the Redskins on April 26.
“This win is very big,” Lady Warrior head coach Hans Griepentrog said of his team’s victory.
“We obviously have two more games we are looking forward to Wednesday and Friday to get that momentum going into sectionals and we need to be at the top of our game. With these last two games here and last Friday against Plymouth (an 11-3 Warrior win) its definitely looking good,” continued Griepentrog.
The Lady Warriors took control of Monday’s game in the fourth inning. Ashlynn Fisher was brought in to pinch run for Paige Hlutke after Hlutke got on base with a fielder’s choice. Fisher stole second before getting batted around to third by Victoria Warren. With Kylie Norris at the plate, Warren got caught in a pickle between first and second base which allowed Fisher to sneak home to give Wawasee the 2-1 lead. Norris did her job in the bottom of the inning sending the Redskins down in order.
Norris was able to give Goshen fits all day, giving up just the one earned run and only two hits. The senior pitched all seven innings for her team and struck out an impressive eight batters.
Griepentrog was certainly impressed with his ace, stating, “Norris threw a few balls today but she came back every single time and that’s great to have out of a senior. That mental toughness is important and we will need that for sectionals.”
The rest of the Lady Warriors showed some toughness as they picked up an insurance run in the fifth inning. Alli Ousley crossed home plate after a big hit up the middle from Madi Anderson to put the visitors up 3-1. Anderson had two hits to go with the RBI and Kylee Rostochak added three hits, one of which brought home Wawasee’s first run.
The Wawasee defense did its job the next two innings to keep Goshen off the board and wrap up the team’s fifth Northern Lakes Conference win.
With Wawasee’s thrill of victory came at the expense of Goshen’s agony of defeat, a feeling that has become all too common for the Redskins head coach Cassi McCormack.
“We were just not as aggressive today, especially at the plate,” McComack stated.
The coach would later continue, “I thought we played well defensively today but we were just too passive at the plate. We had a couple hits today. Last time we played Wawasee we had a handful of hits, to only get two hits this time is what hurt us.”
Goshen is now 4-20 on the season.
Wawasee improves to 9-11 for the year and 5-7 in NLC competition. The Lady Warriors next game will be Wednesday night against Concord with first pitch set for 5 p.m. at Wawasee High School.
The Lady Warrior junior varsity squad improved to 11-2 on the year with an eye-popping 17-0 victory over the Goshen JV on Monday night. The Wawasee JV had 20 hits and was led by Katie Avery who went 4-4 with four runs scored.