Wawasee Softball: Falcons Soar Past Warriors
SYRACUSE – When opportunity knocked Monday night, the Fairfield softball team made sure to answer.
The Falcons took advantage of several Wawasee miscues to put together an impressive 9-2 win over the host Warriors.
Farifield, which checked in at No. 12 in the latest Class 3-A coaches poll, also used an outstanding pitching performance by ace Lairen Miller and aggressive baserunning to handle Wawasee.
The contest, between two of the area’s strongest squads, didn’t live up to its billing. The rusty Warriors, who had not played since March 29 and had not practiced in 10 days due to Spring Break, struggled in every phase of the game.
The Falcons, who scored five runs in their final at bat to break open a close contest, improve to 2-0. Wawasee, which had outscored its first three foes by a combined total of 38-9, drops to 3-1.
Wawasee lost 3-2 to Fairfield during the regular season and 3-0 in a sectional semifinal game in 2015.
Wawasee coach Jared Knipper saw his team commit a handful of physical errors, a couple more of the mental variety and also strike out 12 times versus Miller.
Knipper, whose team returns a ton of talent from last year’s 20-6 squad that won the Northern Lakes Conference championship at 10-2 in league play, was not surprised by the outcome.
“We just have to turn the page and move on from this game and get ready for the conference next week,” said Knipper. “It is what it is. We had not practiced in 10 days and we were not prepared for this game.
“You can’t even use this as a measuring stick after having that much time off. We made mistakes tonight and Fairfield didn’t. We played a quality team, but have no idea where we are at after this one. We just have to really treat this as a practice and just move on.”
The game was a pitcher’s duel between Miller and Wawasee’s Amber Lemberg through five innings. The Falcons had a 1-0 lead thanks to a a run in the third after a double by Alexis Zook, who then alertly stole third and scored on a fielder’s choice.
Miller was tough in the circle for the Falcons. The senior, after allowing back-to-back singles to Madi Wilson and Allissa Flores with one out in the first inning, retired 14 straight Wawasee batters. Miller fanned nine Warriors in that stretch, including striking out the side in both the third and fifth innings by relying on a strong rise ball.
Fairfield plated three runs in the sixth frame to take a 4-0 lead. The last two tallies came on a Wawasee error.
The Warriors showed life at the plate in the bottom of the sixth. Senior Kylee Rostochak smashed a two-run double with two outs to cut the deficit to 4-2.
The Falcons responded in the top of the seventh frame to pull away. Miller helped her own cause with an RBI double and then senior Jalisa Schwartz put an exclamation point on the win by crushing a two-run homer over the left field fence for the final tallies in the 9-2 win.
“We played really well tonight coming off Spring Break,” said longtime Fairfield coach John Skibbe. “You could tell our girls wanted to be here tonight. They know Wawasee is a good team and they enjoy the competition.
“I wasn’t expecting it to be 9-2. I thought like a 2-1 or 3-2 game. We just took advantage of some things and came through with some good hits. Our girls take a lot of pride in their baserunning. We may not be the fastest team, but they are aggressive and take the extra base and did that tonight.
“We just found a pitch that worked for Lairen tonight and stayed with it. The last game she struggled. We found one tonight and stuck to that.”
Fairfield won the junior varsity contest 7-3.
Wawasee hosts Columbia City Tuesday and Manchester Friday and plays at Triton Saturday. The Warriors open NLC play by hosting county rival Warsaw next Monday.
Fairfield hosts Churbusco Tuesday, plays at Angola Thursday and entertains Jimtown Friday.