Wawasee pitcher Aaron Voirol deals to Whitko Thursday in the NorthWood Baseball Sectional. (Photos by Mike Deak)

NAPPANEE – Wawasee senior pitcher Aaron Voirol has been on the short end of some tough decisions this season. Thursday, Voirol made the decision an easy one to make.

Voirol pitched a complete game, holding Whitko to six hits and showed a lot of moxie in Wawasee’s 7-3 victory at the Class 3-A NorthWood Baseball Sectional.

Voirol wasn’t perfect, but his defense helped with a pair of sparkling plays to keep runs off the board. The first inning had Harrison Shortill gun down Drew Bradford at the plate to end the inning after Wawasee committed a throwing error to first. In the fourth, Whitko had the bases loaded with one out, but Gage Reinhard snared a line drive and stepped on second to get Voirol and the Warriors out of another jam.

Voirol struck out seven, three of which came in the final two innings.

“I was just focused on the glove and reached back and just threw. The defense also made some huge plays for me,” Voirol said after taking 10 minutes to run a series of pole sprints immediately after the game. “I was throwing the four-seam fastball early in the game and they were hitting it. So I switched to the two-seam fastball, which was all I threw in the last three innings. Seemed to work.”

Wawasee had all of its run production come with two outs.

Caleb Dingeldein drove in two runs with a single in the third, and plated another with a single in the fourth. Chase Rookstool had an RBI double to bring home Dingeldein in the third, and scored a run after singling in the fifth.

Brett Carson also had a huge hit for the Warriors, driving in two with a single in the fifth to push Wawasee’s lead to 7-2. More than enough cushion for Voirol to settle in.

“It comes down to two-out, two-strike hitting right there,” Wawasee head coach Brent Doty said. “A couple times we had a huge hits with two outs and two strikes with a guy on. We’ve been preaching that the last couple weeks. When the time comes and its crunch time and we need a base hit, that’s what turned it around for us.”

Despite trailing 5-0 in the fourth, Whitko looked like it had figured out Voirol. The Wildcats loaded the bases and had Riley Anderson drove in a run with a single. Tanner Hughes then drew a bases loaded walk ahead of Reinhard’s defensive heroics.

Whitko again loaded the bases in the fifth inning with no outs but settled for just one run on an infield single by Hunter Sroufe.

The Wildcats left six on base and close with a 20-9 record, the fourth year in a row Whitko has ended with exactly 20 wins.

“When Wawasee had guys on base, they executed and did a good job hitting the ball. We left runners out there and that was the big difference in the ballgame,” Whitko head coach Erik Hisner said. “There were some mental errors that compounded and we had a couple chances to get back into the ballgame. But give them credit, Wawasee made plays when they needed to.”

Wawasee (11-13) will move to the semi-finals of the sectional, where it will face either Lakeland or West Noble, slated to play Friday evening. The semi-finals will begin Saturday at 11 a.m. with NorthWood against Tippecanoe Valley. NorthWood reached the semi’s with a 6-2 win over Fairfield Wednesday night in the sectional opener. Wawasee’s game is scheduled to follow at approximately 1 p.m.

The sectional championship is scheduled for Monday at 5 p.m.