NorthWood’s Jaron Mullet works his way to third base during the Panthers’ 11-4 win over Wawasee Saturday in the NorthWood Baseball Sectional. (Photos by Mike Deak)

SYRACUSE – Playing 21 miles from home, NorthWood looked just as comfortable as the home team at Wawasee as it has all season in Nappanee. The Class 3-A NorthWood Baseball Sectional, moved again Saturday due to flooded fields at NorthWood, landed at Wawasee. The Panthers seemed right at home, drubbing interim host Wawasee while Lakeland continued its season with a late spurt to drop West Noble from the tournament.

NorthWood 11, Wawasee 4

Extra opportunities gave the favorite Panthers a distinct advantage against the Warriors. Three of them, in fact.

NorthWood managed to score six runs on Wawasee mental mistakes, turning what was a tight game into a lopsided final. A botched rundown by Wawasee, to which it had a runner picked off third, only to allow the runner back to third while the runner at first freely moved to second, was followed by a two-run single by Jaron Mullet. Later, a non-throw on a stolen base attempt with two outs allowed NorthWood another crack at it, and Travis Stephenson brought in two more runs.

Wawasee starting pitcher Blake Norris delivers against NorthWood.

A third miscue in the fifth was the dagger, as miscommunication on a foul pop fell between two Wawasee defenders, giving Vince Herschberger another swing, which he deposited in the outfield for a two-run single. What had been a dicey 2-1 NorthWood lead in the third became an 11-4 cushion.

“It’s just one of those days for us,” said Wawasee manager Brent Doty. “I can’t say enough about the resiliency of our guys, but to have all of those mistakes against a team that is 22-1, we put ourselves in bad positions.”

Added NorthWood skipper Jay Sheets, whose team has been resourceful all season in similar situations, “Sometimes you don’t know what your bats are going to do, but we came out swinging and put pressure on them. We were fortunate to get a couple breaks, but we kept the pressure on Wawasee enough to stay ahead.”

The Panthers, playing its first game since locking up a 14-0 Northern Lakes Conference season last Friday against Northridge, showed plenty of rust in the early going. The Panthers scored its first two runs in the first on an error and fielder’s choice. Wawasee would strike back with a run in the second on a Rylan Kuhn single, but the Warriors left the bases loaded in the inning, wasting a golden opportunity.

Three runs in the fourth seemed all too late for the Warriors despite RBIs from Jamie Slabaugh, Kuhn and Spencer Prescott to get the game back to a 9-4 scoreline after NorthWood had its fortunes build a 9-1 lead after the wild third.

“I’m just proud of my guys for fighting,” Doty said of his team, which ends 12-15 overall. “That’s a really tough assignment to draw a NorthWood team that’s been as good as they have, then give them a big lead like that. But we scratched and clawed back, got a few runs back and made a game of it. It says a lot about the character of the kids in our program, starting with the four seniors that leave today, but also of the kids coming back.”

Matt Dutkowski got the win for the Panthers, working four innings of relief, giving up three runs on four hits and striking out two.

Lakeland 11, West Noble 1

A tie ballgame became a run-rule very quickly. Sitting at 1-1 in the fourth, Lakeland plated six runs, then managed four more to stun West Noble in Saturday’s first semi-final.

The Lakers loaded the bases in the fourth, then got an RBI single from Kyler Bowers to start the huge outburst. Dylan Dunn added a two-run single, and Isaiah Lehman made it 7-1 with another run-scoring single.

After West Noble went down quiet in the fifth, Lakeland again loaded the bases and used a walk and two Charger errors to finish off the contest.

West Noble closes at 11-15.

Lakeland (10-18) will meet NorthWood (23-1) at 11 a.m. Monday in the sectional championship. The game will be played at Wawasee per mandate from the state given Wawasee has hosted multiple dates of the sectional due to rain and flooding issues at NorthWood.

“Sure, we wanted to host the sectional, but we can’t control the weather and things like that,” Sheets said of Monday’s matchup coming back to Wawasee despite playing under the title of “NorthWood Baseball Sectional”. “It is what it is, but we’ll continue to play here and hope for the best. Right now, our guys are hungry and playing good baseball. I like our chances anywhere right now.”