Tippecanoe Valley ace Eric Hammer delivers a pitch versus Warsaw Wednesday night. The Vikings won 11-4.

WARSAW – The Tippecanoe Valley baseball team boasts plenty of strong arms and speedy legs this season.

The Vikings put both of those impressive traits on big-time display Wednesday night.

Valley combined strong pitching and plenty of speed in its offensive arsenal to down host Warsaw 11-4 in the season opener for both teams.

The Vikings made a living thanks to plenty of clutch hitting too versus the Tigers. Valley plated nine of its runs with two outs to dominate the non-conference clash of rivals.

Warsaw did its part to help Valley as Tiger pitchers hit five batters and walked seven others. The hosts also committed three errors, including a pair in the pivotal third inning when the Vikings scored five runs to break open the contest.

“On day one you always have a question as to how you will swing the bats versus live pitching,” said Valley coach Justin Branock. “I was very pleased with our approach at the plate tonight. We really battled with two strikes and saw a lot of pitches.

“You win games with two-out hits and we got a lot of those tonight too. I thought that our guys did a great job picking each other up at the plate. We have a senior led team with a lot of guys with experience who have put in a lot of time to get better.

We’re fast. One of our assets is our legs and our speed. We want to use that by putting the ball on the ground. Our offensive arsenal is to use our legs a lot. We can run a walk or a hit batter into a double. That’s our approach and it worked well for us tonight.”

Valley took the lead right from the start Wednesday. The Vikings plated a pair of runs in the top of the first frame on two hit batters, a walk, an infield single and a groundout.

Isaac Lenon lets fly for the Tigers.

The Tigers cut the lead in half in their first at bat off Valley ace Eric Hammer. Senior Zach Witt stroked a two-out RBI single for the hosts to score senior Sterling Hay, who had doubled. The game would have been tied except that a fine throw by Viking left fielder Jay Myers nailed Luke Baker at the plate on the double by Hay.

The Vikings broke the game open with a five-run third frame. The Tigers committed two errors in the key inning to open the door. Senior Gavin Bussard had an RBI single and senior Luke Helton a two-run single to cap the outburst. Valley added three more runs in the fourth on a two-run single by Helton and an infield single by Bussard.

Warsaw showed its fight late in the game. The hosts got an RBI single by senior Marcelo Rodriguez in the fourth to make it 11-2. The Tigers then scored two more in the fifth frame, taking advantage of a pair of Valley errors and a wild pitch.  Warsaw also loaded the bases in their final at-bat before the last out was recorded.

Hammer pitched the first 3 2/3 innings before leaving the game up 11-1. The hard-throwing senior southpaw, who missed most of last season due to an arm injury, will play at Northern Illinois.

“Our plan for Eric was to throw 70 pitches tonight, but with the big lead we decided to take him out after 60,” explained Branock. “He’s got a big time arm. He’s healthy and I expect him to have a huge year for us. I liked that he threw a lot more strikes tonight and was ahead of hitters.

“We have a deep pitching staff this season. We have arms. Helton is our No. 2 pitcher and he didn’t even throw tonight for us.”

A Valley hitter prepares to take a rip.

The duo of junior Alec Craig and senior Brandon Webster finished the game in relief for the Vikings. Craig went 2 1/3 innings following Hammer and Webster pitched the seventh inning.

“We were our own worst enemy tonight,” said Warsaw coach Mike Hepler. “We just didn’t play well. You can’t defend that combination of five hit batters and seven walks and then we have the two errors in the third when they broke it wide open.

“I just feel that we beat ourselves tonight. We gave them everything to open innings, hit batters, walks, an error. But we battled until the end and did not quit. I like this group. We just need to bounce back Thursday at Huntington. We need to come out with a more aggressive approach.”

The leadoff hitter in each of the first four innings reached for the Vikings, two on hit by pitches, another on an error and one by a walk.

Junior Jordan Jones pitched strong the final four innings in relief for the Tigers.

Warsaw plays at Huntington North Thursday and at Columbia City Friday before hosting Wawasee in the NLC opener Monday. Valley hosts Bremen on Saturday.