Blake Norris turned in a strong effort in pitching Wawasee past Elkhart Memorial 7-1 Friday night.

ELKHART – The Wawasee baseball team made sure it did not need any late game heroics to top Elkhart Memorial this time around.

The Warriors took the wind out of the sails of the hosts with a quick start Friday evening en route to a 7-1 victory.

Wawasee, which scored six runs in its final at-bat to beat the Crimson Chargers 8-7 at home back on April 19, led from start to finish to sweep the season series.

Wawasee improves to 8-8 overall and evens its league mark at 4-4. The Chargers drop to 8-10 overall and 3-6 in the conference.

The Warriors scored five times Friday night in the first two frames en route to the Northern Lakes Conference win on a blustery evening.

Wawasee got going from the get go in the first inning. Leadoff man Rylan Kuhn, who had a big night at the dish, got his team going with a double. Kuhn went to second on a groundout and scored on a passed ball for a 1-0 lead. The Warriors then made it 2-0 as Jacob Garcia delivered an RBI single.

A big rally in the second frame with two outs gave the Warriors a quick 5-0 lead. Blake Norris and Kuhn smacked back-to-back singles after the first two batters of the inning were retired. Spencer Prescott then plated both of them with a high flyball to center that was not caught in the tough wind. Gavin Barker then delivered an RBI single to make it 5-0.

Blaine Greer takes a pitch.

Wawasee would add single runs in the third and sixth innings. Jairus Boyer had a sacrifice fly in the third for the Warriors.

Norris picked up the pitching win for Wawasee. The junior right-hander went four innings with four strikeouts and four walks. Norris also had his first varsity hit in the win.

Kuhn paced the offense by going 3-3 and reaching base four times for the Warriors. Wawasee outhit the Chargers 12-4 in the contest.

Memorial, which was coming off a 3-2 NLC win over Plymouth in 10 innings on Wednesday, scored its lone run in the second inning on a groundout by Dylan Pressler. Junior Braden Baer took the loss on the hill for the hosts.

Wawasee won the junior varsity game 5-4. Zak Linnemeier hit a home run in the eighth inning for the game winner for the Warriors.

Wawasee plays at Fort Wayne Concordia Saturday with the varsity game at noon and the JV contest to follow. The Warriors then host NorthWood in NLC action Monday night. Memorial returns to league play at Goshen Monday evening.