PREP BASEBALL: Goshen holds on at home against Wawasee

May 17—GOSHEN — After a pair of one-run losses to Northern Lakes Conference foe Warsaw Saturday, Goshen needed to right the ship against Wawasee Monday to keep its NLC title hopes alive.

Despite a bit of an off night on the mound, the RedHawks did just enough in the batter's box to secure a huge bounce-back victory, beating the Warriors, 12-11, to improve its conference record to 9-4 with one NLC game remaining.

"We didn't play well by any stretch of the imagination," Goshen head coach JJ DuBois said. "Especially on the mound, which has been maybe our biggest strength all year. We walked eight guys there, and we left nine guys on base (at the plate). We didn't play great situational baseball at times (Monday night), but we figured out a way to win.

"I told the guys that I'll never take a conference victory away from them, but we had (Wawasee) down and out multiple times and we just kept letting them get back in it. But at this point of the season, you'll take your wins when you can get them."

The RedHawks (10-10, 9-4 NLC) faced adversity from the very beginning of the game, falling behind 1-0 following a solo homer from Wawasee senior Grant Brooks during the first at-bat of the contest.

Goshen would quickly rebound though, tying the game in the bottom of the first after a two-out RBI single by senior Roman Schrock to make it 1-1 after an inning of play.

The Warriors (7-13, 4-9 NLC) temporarily regained the lead in the top of the second behind an RBI groundout by Grant Brooks that scored junior Gavin Malone from third, but the RedHawks would quickly counter with four runs in the bottom half of the second inning.

Goshen tied the game at two after Wawasee sophomore Hunter Fiedeke botched a throw to third, allowing junior Quinn Bechtel to score from 90 feet away.

Later in the half inning, junior Noah Alford hit an RBI single to center field, scoring senior Isaiah Park. One at-bat later, junior Thomas Castillo laced a line drive to center, which would drive in both Alford and freshman Quinn Shreiner Landes to boost the score to 5-2 in favor of Goshen after two innings.

The back-and-forth affair would continue into the top of the third, with Wawasee adding two to trim Goshen's lead to one.

Senior Lucas Ringler scored sophomore Kaleb Salazar from third on an RBI sacrifice fly to center before freshman Maddux Everingham's RBI groundout to second base allowed sophomore Ty Brooks to come in from third.

The Warriors would later manage to tie the game at five in the top of the fourth after a two-out RBI single by Fiedeke, but the contest wouldn't stay that way for much longer.

With pitch counts in the back of every coach's mind due to the lingering postseason ahead, Wawasee head coach Joe Salazar had to make the tough decision of pulling Grant Brooks from the bump heading into the bottom of the fourth.

Goshen took full advantage of Wawasee's relief pitchers, scoring five runs to blow the game open during the bottom half of the fourth.

Wawasee sophomore Ethan Slabaugh took to the mound to open the inning, where he consistently struggled with his command.

Slabaugh gave up a hit-by-pitch, a single and an RBI double to Thomas Castillo three batters into his outing. As the inning went on, he'd give up walks to three of the next four batters, allowing two Goshen runners to cross the plate to make it 8-5.

"He came in in a tough spot," said Joe Salazar of Slabaugh. "He knows what he has to do. He has the experience. He's been pitching well the whole year. He just didn't have it (Monday)."

Slabaugh would be pulled in favor of junior Dylan Stump with one out in the half inning, and the junior would struggle finding the strike zone as well.

Stump would walk his first two batters with the bases loaded, allowing Schrock and sophomore Damain Castillo to score, giving the RedHawks a 10-5 lead after four innings.

Despite a debilitating bottom of the fourth in the field, Wawasee started fighting back right away in the top of the fifth with three runs in the frame.

Everingham drove in two of the runs with a single to left before a passed ball later in the inning scored the freshman to trim Goshen's lead to two.

After a quick inning from Stump in the bottom of the fifth, the Warriors cut it to one in the top of the sixth due another ball getting past Goshen junior Adam Ellison at the plate.

Kaleb Salazar would slide in from third, getting just underneath the tag of junior Yabi Kurtz to make it a 10-9 ballgame.

"They're fighters," said Joe Salazar of his team. "That's a good thing. It's been that way the last couple of games. They just keep fighting back. We just can't get in those holes. That's the biggest thing. We keep getting in these holes with errors, guys striking out with runners on base. That's just stuff we have to capitalize on."

Goshen managed to add a couple security runs in the bottom of the sixth with two outs in the half inning against Stump.

Bechtel would score on a wild pitch to the backstop before Alford's RBI single to center plated junior Nathan Pinarski from second.

The RedHawks would need both of those security runs, because in the top of the seventh, Grant Brooks would tee off once again. On a 3-1 pitch from Pinarski, the senior belted his second home run of the game over the fence in right center to make it 12-11 with just one out in the frame.

Pinarski would then settle down nicely on the bump, striking out the next two batters in Fiedeke and Kaleb Salazar to secure the conference victory.

"Nate's a guy who sometimes comes on in mop-up situations," DuBois said. "We were out of arms. But we knew Nate could at least come in and throw strikes to give us a shot. He's one of our dogs on this team. He just figures stuff out. He's just a baseball guy, so he came in in that situation and knew exactly what he needed to do.

"He knew that, yes, that home run could give them some momentum. But he knew situationally that it didn't matter. What mattered was not giving up that 12th run. He wasn't flustered by it, and he made sure he wasn't going to let something like that bother him."

With the win and Northridge's extra-inning loss to Mishawaka Monday, both the RedHawks and Raiders are tied a top the NLC standings with one conference game to go for each.

Both teams play on Wednesday, with Goshen taking on NorthWood and Northridge traveling to Plymouth.

Evan Lepak can be reached at evan.lepak@goshennews.com or 574-533-2151, ext. 240326. Follow him on Twitter @EvanMPLepak.