Fairfield pitcher Lairen Miller gets a high-five after retiring the side in the fifth inning of a 3-2 win over Wawasee Monday evening. (Photos by Mike Deak)

BENTON – Coasting along for five innings, Wawasee looked like it was settling in for it’s fourth straight win to open the 2015 softball season. Then the sixth inning came along.

Two errors in the bottom of the sixth inning allowed Fairfield to plate two runs which were huge in a 3-2 Falcons win over Wawasee Monday evening.

Fairfield’s Jenean Schwartz follows her single in the fifth inning that broke up Wawasee pitcher Amber Lemberg’s no-hitter.

Trailing 2-1 in the sixth, DJ Martz led Fairfield off with a ringing double off the fence in center through the teeth of a stiff wind howling straight in. After a sacrifice bunt pushed Martz to third, Wawasee had Martz in a rundown on the next grounder, only to drop the throw at home as Martz desperately slid around the attempted tag.

On the very next play, a poorly executed throw and catch by Wawasee on another soft grounder allowed Jenean Schwartz to score from second as the throw rolled into right field.

“I thought it would come down the team that made the least amount of errors,” started Fairfield head coach John Skibbe. “Lairen (Miller) struggled in that one inning where they scored a couple runs. They hit the ball hard and we made the error on the one bunt. But we took advantage of a couple errors they made at the end of the game. That really was the difference in the game.”

Added Wawasee head coach Jared Knipper, “Whenever you play Fairfield, whoever makes the first mistake is probably going to lose, and we made it tonight. They played clean and we made a couple of mishaps. They didn’t hit the ball very hard and I thought we hit the ball extremely hard.”

Wawasee first baseman Meghan Fretz reacts after making a slick fielding play in the third inning.

Fairfield didn’t get its first hit off Wawasee starter Amber Lemberg until the fifth. The Falcons, however, blew a golden chance in the inning with the bases loaded and just one out, managing just an RBI groundout from Hannalore Jones as Lemberg worked out of the jam.

Lemberg took the loss despite giving up just three hits over six innings and struck out six. Her counterpart, Miller, gave up just four hits and allowed just two Wawasee baserunners after the shaky second inning.

An RBI single from Meghan Fretz in the second drove in Danielle Gunkel, who led off the inning with a solid single. Paige Hlutke drove Fretz in three batters later with a blooper to right. Wawasee would load the bases, but Miller dug deep to strike out Cristina DeLaFuente to end the threat.

Miller had five strikeouts in the game, including one to end the game with the tying run on base.

“Our bottom of the lineup was very key to our rally,” Skibbe said. “DJ and Danica (Mast) got things going in the sixth, but when we wanted to play small ball, they stepped up. It is so important to put pressure on their defense, and I think our whole lineup did that at times tonight.”

For Fairfield, the win moves the club to 3-0 while Wawasee drops to 3-1 on the season after a week off from spring break. Fairfield has all three wins against Northern Lakes Conference teams, with big wins over Northridge and NorthWood already. The Lady Warriors return to the diamond Tuesday with another tough road game at Columbia City.

“I think we needed that week off to get a couple girls healthy,” Knipper said. “We’re not at full strength right now with (Kylee) Rostochak out for a couple weeks. I think she makes a big difference in this game in that middle part of the lineup.”

Fairfield and Wawasee battled in JV softball Monday night at Wawasee, with the Falcons claiming a 17-14 shoot-out win. Statistics from the game were not supplied.

Wawasee right fielder Kayla White rockets a throw back to first base to double off a runner in the second inning.