Courtney Chookie winds up for Warsaw Wednesday night. The sophomore fired a two-hit gem in a 2-0 NLC win over NorthWood.

NAPPANEE – Practice paid off in a big way Wednesday night for the Warsaw softball team.

The Tigers, who worked on defense and bunting a night before, put the two ingredients together to cook up a 2-0 win over host NorthWood.

Warsaw played errorless ball and also got a key bunt from Jordan McClone in a two-run sixth inning to top the Panthers in Northern Lakes Conference play.

The Tigers, who also got an outstanding pitching performance from Courtney Chookie, improve to 8-8 overall and move to 7-4 in conference play. NorthWood drops to 10-12 overall and 3-7 in the NLC.

“We’ve been working hard on our defense because that’s been our Achilles Heel,” said Warsaw coach Kevin Dishman. “We worked hard on it Tuesday night at practice. Tonight it was all about having no errors. We’re averaging three per game.

“We also spent the second half of practice Tuesday night working on our bunting. Jordan came through tonight with a big bunt for us in that sixth inning.”

The second meeting of the season Wednesday night was a completely different tale than the first matchup. NorthWood outscored Warsaw 13-10 back on April 24 in a game that featured 31 total hits and six errors by the host Tigers.

Warsaw had plenty of traffic on the bases before finally breaking through in the sixth frame in a scoreless game. The Tigers left seven runners on base, including stranding a pair at third, through the first five innings.

Warsaw used outstanding execution to dent the scoreboard in the sixth. Saylor Bradley started the rally by drawing a leadoff walk. McClone then laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Bradley to second. Adara Frey then ripped a bad-hop RBI single past the NorthWood third baseman for a 1-0 lead. Morgan Ashtari gave the Tigers an insurance run with a key RBI single two batters later with two outs to make it 2-0.

“We’re a confident team,” noted Dishman. “We can hit and anybody in our lineup can do it. I would have liked to score more tonight because that is our strong suit. But, I’m totally pleased. I’m happy with our progress. We just have to stay away from letting teams score those crooked numbers on us.”

Kylie Hochstetler focuses at the plate for the Panthers.

Chookie pitched a masterful game in the circle. The sophomore allowed just two hits, none coming after the second inning. She struck out three and walked four.

The Tigers also turned in a terrific double play to end the NorthWood fifth inning, getting the batter on a bunt attempt and then firing the ball to third to get the final out on a Panther runner attempting to go from first to third on the play.

“Courtney did a great job tonight,” Dishman said. “She was spot on with her pitches. Kalie Keener did an excellent job tonight too at catcher. Our normal catcher is out this week with an ankle injury and Kalie has stepped in for us.”

NorthWood coach Mandy DeMien saw her offense struggle a night after posting an 18-1 win over Bethany Christian.

“I thought that there would be more hits tonight,” offered DeMien. “We left too many runners on base and just did not capitalize when we had opportunities. We just didn’t make  some adjustments at the plate tonight that I would like to see.

“I thought overall that our girls played well. I was happy with how we played. It was probably the best game that I have seen us play defensively and enthusiasm wise. I thought overall that our pitcher threw a great game. I just hope we come out and hit the ball better tomorrow night against Memorial.”

Hannah Stickley went the distance in the circle for NorthWood. She allowed eight hits, while striking out three and walking four.

Abby Glass led the offense for the Tigers with three hits, including a double.

Gracie Clark and Amanda Jenkins each had a hit for the Panthers.

Warsaw plays at Northridge Friday night and NorthWood hosts Elkhart Memorial Thursday night in NLC play.

Abby Glass had a big game for the Tigers.

NorthWood’s Grace Anglemyer gets a signal from the dugout.

Hannah Stickley prepares to let it fly for the Panthers.

Isabelle Dittmar checks her swing.