Wawasee head coach Brent Doty (back) shows his excitement as Nate Prescott slides into home for the Warriors during Tuesday’s 8-7 win over Whitko. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

SYRACUSE – In Tuesday’s game between Whitko and Wawasee it was all about offense, right up until it wasn’t. In a hardball game that revolved heavily around scoring early on, it was a late defensive play that would help secure an 8-7 win for the Warriors.

“That was huge. They were going for the tying run and we hose them right at the plate,” said Wawasee head coach Brent Doty. Doty was celebrating the play made by his senior left fielder Kurtis Liston in the top of the sixth inning.

With one out and two on for the Wildcats, Garrett Smiley reached on a hit to left field. Liston fielded the ball and made a great throw to catcher Nate Prescott at the plate who tagged out Zach Snep, the would-be tying run. The next batter popped out, allowing the Warriors to preserve their 8-7 lead into the bottom half of the inning and eventually claim the victory.

“I always jab him (Liston) a little bit and tell him that he doesn’t have much of an arm, but he showed it off right there,” Doty said with a laugh. “A guy tagged up on him earlier and he kind of drifted back on it and didn’t work through it, but in the sixth inning there he came through, made a great throw and it was terrific.”

Liston’s shining moment on defense was really part of a theme for the Warriors in the last few innings. The change in defensive tone could be attributed, in part, to relief pitcher Sam Rookstool.

Facing a 7-6 deficit when entering the game in the fourth inning, Rookstool pitched four scoreless innings behind three strikeouts to earn the win.

“You just can’t say enough about Sam Rookstool tonight,” Doty said smiling. “He came in and just shut the door for us. We needed somebody to pick us up after Harrison (Shortill) struggled to start the game. Just a great job by him today.”

Shortill recorded two strikeouts in his three innings of work and settled down after seeing six runs scored on him in the first inning. Shortill moved to first after being relieved by Rookstool. Shortill made an athletic grab of an errant throw then quickly tagged-out Alex Bechtold for the game-winning out to again prevent Whitko from scoring the tying run.

Landen Goff highlighted Whitko’s day offensively with a three-run homer in the first inning. Drew Bardford added two more RBIs in the first inning and finished 2-4 with another run scored and a stolen base.

Gage Reinhard had a nice day for the Warriors going 3-4 with a triple and three runs scored. Drew Wright and Chase Rookstool were each 2-3 with two RBIs.

Wawasee committed two errors in the game while Whitko had five. Two of Whitko’s errors came in the fourth inning, both leading to runs for Wawasee. Caleb Dingeldein scored the eventual game-winning run for the Warriors on a throwing error from left field.

“The key to the game was how we responded after going up 6-0,” Whitko head coach Erik Hisner stated. “If we come out and hold Wawasee to just a run or two, then we still have the momentum, but we let them score five runs. They get the shutout on us in the second then tie the game in the bottom of the inning, now it’s 6-6 and the game is on.

“We just have to come out and compete better on the mound. There is no reason for us to come out and walk two guys. I think it was a sequence of 10 pitches without a strike, that’s just uncompetitive. When you give teams free bases, that makes the difference in it being 6-5 or 6-2.”

Whitko falls to 4-3 while Wawasee moves to 4-0.

The Whitko junior varsity team lost 15-0 at home against Huntington North Tuesday night. River West took the loss for the JV ‘Cats.