Warsaw’s Brandon Shipp knocked a ball out of the park in the bottom of the sixth inning to give the Tigers two huge insurance runs in their 7-6 win over Wawasee on Monday night. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

WARSAW – Monday may have been Dyngus Day for those that made the trip to South Bend, but it was a day circled in red for the Wawasee and Warsaw baseball teams for a completely different reason.

The two rivals squared off for the first of two meetings in 2014 at Warsaw Community High School to start the week. Both teams had plenty of dings throughout the day but one Warsaw player had perhaps the biggest of them all to help lift the Tigers 7-6 over their county rivals.

The Tigers were holding a 5-4 lead in the bottom of the sixth, and had already blown a two-run lead earlier in the game. Any kind of insurance would be huge going in to the top of the seventh. Warsaw just needed someone to step up. Brandon Shipp was that someone.

Shipp stepped to the plate with one out and Caleb Moneyheffer standing on first base. Aaron Voirol was on the mound for the Warriors in his first inning of work and battled with Shipp for a few pitches before the Tiger senior hit a solid, towering shot to left-center field and watched it soar over the fence.

The homer sent the Warsaw dugout into a frenzy and gave the Tigers a nice cushion at 7-4. Perhaps nobody loved the moment more than Tiger head coach Mike Hepler.

“Oh my goodness,” said an ecstatic Hepler. “It was just huge. I’ve been on him the last few days about really working on the lower half of his body, trying to work on driving the ball and and he did it right there.”

The Tiger offense was fueled by Shipp and his production. The senior finished 2-2 at the plate, reaching on an error and was also walked. All of that led to Shipp tallying a game-high three RBIs.

Shipp’s shot became even more important in the top of the seventh inning when the Warriors started to rally. Drew Wright tallied a pinch hit double to start the inning and would end up scoring along with Nate Prescott after Nate Hare got on base with a two out single to bring Wawasee within one. Jonathan Murphy retired the final Wawasee batter to secure the win for the Tigers.

Wawasee head coach Brent Doty has preached that focus is the key for the team this year and he knows his guys lost focus at times on Monday night.

“You can’t question the fight out of these guys,” Doty stated. “They continue to fight and play hard every single game. No matter what the score is, we never feel like we are out of it. But, we have a few walk and a few errors and we hurt ourselves.

“Warsaw scored two right away, we were able to get the ela

Warsaw started things early, scoring two in the bottom of the first before Wawasee took over the lead with a run in the second inning and three more in the fourth. Warsaw responded with three runs of its own with two outs in the bottom of the fourth to regain the lead, never giving it back.

The tone was set on the mound for the Tigers as Kevin Hawley pitched into the sixth inning for Warsaw. Hawley (2-0) struck out three en route to getting the win. Justin Oberlin pitched two-thirds of an inning before being pulled after feeling some pain in his elbow. Oberlin tallied one strike out for the Tigers. Murphy picked up his first save of the season.

Hare’s two RBIs were tops for Wawasee (3-3, 0-1). Drew Anderson and Gage Fannin also drove in one run a piece. Bailey Hershberger went 2-2 and reached on an error for the Warriors while Gage Reinhard was 2-3 with two runs scored. Fannin (1-1) pitched four innings and took the loss for the Warriors. Aaron Voirol pitched the final two innings for Wawasee.

[*** ERROR: Weaver X-Plus Shortcoder undefined id: 'spo-photo' *** ]

Both teams will take Tuesday off before getting back into Northern Lakes Conference play on Wednesday. Wawasee will play at Elkhart Memorial while Warsaw (3-2, 1-0) will travel to Goshen.

Warsaw used 14 hits to score 14 runs and defeat Wawasee 14-12 in the junior varsity game at Boggs Park. Sam Rookstool, Lucas Garza and Brock Spangle all homered for the Wawasee (2-1, 0-1). Harrison Shortill took the loss for Wawasee but went 3-4 at the plate. Josh Fitzgerald led Warsaw with three hits. Marcello Rodriguez picked up the win for Warsaw (3-1, 1-0)