BENTON – Bob Shea may have become the architect to Wawasee softball’s tournament success.

Wawasee catcher Paige Hlutke puts the tag on Fairfield’s DJ Martz at home plate for an out during Wawasee’s 5-2 win over Fairfield in the Fairfield Softball Sectional semi-finals Wednesday night. (Photos by Mike Deak)

Shea, the author of the children’s book ‘Big Plans’, diagrams what it could be like to make it big through the eyes of a child. As Wawasee head coach Jared Knipper, a kindergarten teacher at Syracuse Elementary, read the book to his team last week, little did the players know they were about to carve out their own journey to possible big plans.

A giant step forward was taken Wednesday evening at the Fairfield Softball Sectional when Wawasee knocked off Fairfield, the defending champs, 5-2.

“I read them the story about a week ago, and the story is about big plans,” Knipper said following the win. “They have been hashtagging that all over Twitter. Big plans. Big plans we have. We’ve kind of adopted that during our little run here.”

The Bigwigs, in this case the 3-A No. 10 Lady Falcons, put the heat on Wawasee early. A double by DJ Martz to the alley in deep right-center put Fairfield up 1-0.

Wawasee’s Danielle Gunkel watches an RBI single soar against Fairfield.

Wawasee then responded with its own set of Bigshots. Danielle Gunkel ripped an RBI single up the middle to tie the score at one in the top of the fourth. Later in the inning, Courtney Crabtree came up with the biggest hit of her career, driving a two-out pitch 199 feet off the top of the fence for a double, bringing home two runs to give Wawasee a 3-1 cushion.

Ale Brito added an RBI single to push the score to 4-1, and in the sixth, Madie Wilson belted a double to move Wawasee up 5-1.

“She is the senior and she has got to do what she’s got to do,” Knipper said of Crabtree. “I told her that we are going to rely on her to do her job at the plate and try and win us some ballgames. She came through big tonight and got the momentum going our way. In a close game like that, it’s a big deal.”

Fairfield inched to 5-2 after Wawasee committed two errors on the same play with two outs, allowing a run to come around. The Lady Falcons then put runners on first and third in the seventh after Alexis Zook led off with a single and Lairen Miller walked. Wawasee pitcher Amber Lemberg, who came in as a reliever in the second inning for Meghan Fretz, then got the next three batters out to send Wawasee to the sectional final to meet Lakeland, which beat NorthWood, 10-6, in the day’s first semi-final.

Courtney Crabtree of Wawasee makes connection for a two-run double to put Wawasee ahead 3-1 against Fairfield.

“We scored that run in the bottom of the third and they came back and scored four in the fourth. We kind of opened up the gates for them with some mistakes of our own,” said Fairfield head coach John Skibbe, whose team concludes at 21-7. “I have to give Wawasee a lot of credit. They hit the ball really well. It seemed like from the fourth inning on, we couldn’t figure out where to put the ball because they were hitting everything.”

The big shots from Wawasee added up to the tune of 11 hits off Miller, who worked six innings, and reliever Dani Mast. Eight of the nine Wawasee batters recorded at least one hit.

Lemberg was solid for Wawasee, scattering eight hits and striking out five. Lemberg and Fretz also managed to keep Zook and Martz off base in six of the duo’s eight at-bats. Zook, who broke the Fairfield record for runs scored and stolen bases in a season, and Martz, the record holder in RBIs, did very little other than Martz’s double in the third.

Lakeland scored two runs without the need of a hit in a key spot in game one. The Lakers loaded the bases with two outs in the fourth inning, and two wild pitches brought home two runs, pushing the Lakers lead to 8-5. NorthWood (15-11) couldn’t answer while Lakeland tacked on two runs in the fifth to reach its fourth straight sectional final.

Lakeland (15-12) is seeking its sixth sectional crown, last won in 2012 against Wawasee while the Lady Warriors (19-10) are trying for its fifth title, last won in 2010 against Columbia City. First pitch at Fairfield is set for Thursday at 5 p.m.