Wawasee’s Nate Prescottt applies the tag at home to Warsaw’s Sterling Hay in the first inning of the Warriors 8-2 win over the Tigers. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

SYRACUSE – If you want something done right, do it yourself. That seems to be best way to describe the motivation behind the performance of Wawasee’s Aaron Voirol Monday night. The senior was fierce on the mound and dangerous at the plate to help lift his team to an 8-2 win over rival Warsaw in the Northern Lakes Conference opener.

Voirol picked up the win on the mound for the Warriors by pitching all seven innings against the Tigers. In those seven innings of work the senior recorded just one walk, two earned runs and eight strikeouts on a whopping 125 pitches. When Voirol was not busy fanning Tiger batters, he was giving himself insurance in the batters box. At the plate Voirol was 2-2 with a walk, tallying three RBIs two of which came on a two-run homer in the sixth inning. It was a banner day for the senior and it got Wawasee off on the right foot in the NLC.

“You can’t say enough about Aaron Voirol tonight,” said Wawasee head coach Brent Doty. “He just came out and threw very well.

“Pivotal moment for him, and us, was in the fifth inning. Warsaw had guys on second and third with no outs and thanks to Aaron and our defense, they don’t get any runs across.”

That fifth inning stand was huge for the Warriors. Wawasee led 4-2 at the time and despite being in the critical spot with two runners in scoring position and the five-six-seven batters coming up for the Tigers, Voirol struck two batters out and popped another out to second base.

“I was just focused on throwing strikes at that point,” Voirol said of his performance in the fifth. “I was getting tired but I just had to bear down. I told myself that it wasn’t going to happen, Warsaw was not going to score there.”

That mentality helped Voirol record his eight strikeouts in the game a state that as frustrating for the Tigers as they only fanned one Wawasee batter all night. Not putting the ball in play was a big issue for Warsaw coach Mike Hepler.

“Wawasee did a really nice job of putting the ball in play against us. We were fortunate to get some double plays to keep it close,” Hepler began. “I was pleased with the way we played defensively. We’re just struggling offensively. We need to be able to put pressure on the defense of our opponent more consistently and we’re not doing that.”

A triple by Marselo Rodriguez in the third inning gave Warsaw its only two runs of the day, scoring Ethyn Bradley and Tyler LaFollette. LaFollette was 3-3 with a walk and the run scored in the game. Rodriguez, Sterling Hay and Kevin Hawley all had two hits each for the Tigers.

Wawasee scored twice in the bottom of the third to take the lead for the final time on RBIs from Harrison Shortill and Chase Rookstool. Andrew Wright was 2-3 with two doubles and two runs scored for the Warriors. Caleb Dingeldein had two hits and two RBIs while scoring once for the Warriors.

Monday’s win marks the second straight win for Wawasee over Warsaw, dating back to last season. From 1998-2013 the Warriors won a total of two games against the Tigers (2004, 2009) and have not won back-to-back contests against them since the 1997 season.

Wawasee (6-1, 1-0) will host Elkhart Memorial on Wednesday night while Warsaw (1-4, 0-1) will host Goshen. Both games are slated to start at 5:00 p.m.

Warsaw (4-1) won the junior varsity contest 16-6 over Wawasee (1-2). Bryce Sensibaugh had four hits and winning pitcher Henry Howard three. Brady Yates and Alex Miller each also had three hits and Jordan Steffensmeier two for the Tigers.