Penn starting pitcher Skylar Szynski navigated a rocky first inning to piece together yet another brilliant performance as Penn beat Warsaw 10-0 in the Penn Baseball Sectional Thursday night. (Photos by Mike Deak)

MISHAWAKA – Warsaw had its chance. Skylar Szynski made sure they didn’t get another.

After loading the bases with no outs in the first inning off the Penn ace, Warsaw couldn’t score. Szynski took it from there, mowing down the Tigers as the No. 6 and defending state champion Kingsmen won an eventual 10-0 baseball game Thursday night at the Class 4-A Penn Baseball Sectional.

Warsaw second baseman Luke Baker chases down a pop fly.

After spotting the Kingsmen, who were the visitors on the scoreboard despite playing in its home park, two runs in the top of the first off a Nik Kavadas single, the Tigers didn’t seem phased by senior right-hander Szynski. The Indiana University recruit, pitching in front of more than a half-dozen scouts just behind home plate and likely more in the stands, gave up three straight singles to Sterling Hay, Jordan Steffensmeier and Zach Witt to load the bases.

A bullet off the bat of Marselo Rodriguez looked like it was ticketed to center in the next at-bat, but Szynski knocked the liner down and got the force at home. The ace then got Henry Howard to ground into a 4-6-3 double play to get out of the jam unscathed.

While Penn wouldn’t score for three more innings, the wind just seemed to have left Warsaw’s sails.

“We had good approaches in the first inning on his fastball,” began Warsaw head coach Mike Hepler, whose team lost a 10-3 final to Penn in their own Tiger Tourney on May 21. “When we couldn’t get a run across with bases loaded and nobody out, you could feel that momentum turn. He’s a good pitcher and coached well. They made a lot of adjustments on us at the plate. He started throwing the breaking pitch down in the dirt and we were going for it.

“I think we had two base runners after the first, and they adjusted to our approach. To their credit, they are a good team.”

Penn would tack on a Ryan Herman sacrifice fly in the fourth and an RBI single from Ryan Lau in the fifth to make the game 4-0.

Warsaw pitcher Zach Witt.

The Kingsmen used big ball, small ball and a trio of Warsaw mistakes to hang the dime in the sixth. By then, Szynski’s day was done, fanning seven in five innings. After the first inning, Warsaw managed just one more hit and got one on via a Penn error.

Warsaw starting pitcher Zach Witt threw admirably despite gaudy numbers. Witt was on the hook for 11 of Penn’s 13 hits, but worked out of jams in the second and fourth innings to limit what could have been big innings.

Otherwise, a season in which Warsaw (14-12) claimed a share of the Northern Lakes Conference championship came to a screeching halt to the defending Class 4-A state champions.

“It just didn’t work out,” Hepler said. “Once they get a few runs, they really get comfortable and start swinging the bat well.

“It just wasn’t our night.”

In the first game of the evening, Northridge and Elkhart Central danced an extra two innings before Ridge came away with a 7-3 win.

Elkhart had a chance to put the game away in the eighth, loading the bases but came away with a strikeout.

In the ninth, Northridge scored its first run on a wild pitch, then got the carousel going with an RBI single from Bryce Miller and added two more RBI hits.

Andy Ross got the win in relief for Northridge while Andrew Salmon took the loss for the Blazers.

Northridge (18-7) and Penn (25-4) will meet in the second game of Saturday’s sectional semi-final, with Concord and Elkhart Memorial meeting in the day’s first game.

The championship will be at 11 a.m. Monday at Penn.

Warsaw’s Sterling Hay takes a look as Marselo Rodriguez swings away against Penn starter Skylar Szynski.