SYRACUSE – Northern Lakes Conference softball opened up across the ledger Monday, and the annual lid lifter between Kosciusko County rivals was pretty one-sided. Wawasee, the defending conference champions, belted 18 hits in an 8-0 final over visiting Warsaw.

While the top of Wawasee’s order took some huge cuts and made some noise, the bottom of its order set a lot of the tone. Cristina DeLaFuente and Kayla White each had four hits, DeLaFuente scoring two runs and White driving in two from the seven and eight positions in the order. Six hitter Amber Lemberg had three hits and scored three times, and nine hitter Ale Brito doubled and drove in two runs.

Wawasee started its hit parade early, though, loading the bases in the first inning. Warsaw saved a little face with a nice diving play from Sarah Shoemaker, who caught Allissa Flores’ screaming line drive and dove to double off the runner at second. But Meghan Fretz came through with a ringing double to drive in two.

The Warriors added solo runs in the second and third, then broke out in the fifth. As Warsaw starter Courtney Chookie was running out of gas, Wawasee opened the inning with four straight hits, Brito’s double bringing home two. A single over the third base bag by Danielle Gunkel brought in another run, all but ending the suspense.

“It helped to have the bats going today, but it was nice to see some nice defensive plays as well,” said Wawasee head coach Jared Knipper, noting diving grabs by DeLaFuente and Flores to help save sure hits. “Things like that help us feel like we’re getting past those early season jitters and settling in for the long haul.”

The added support made life much easier for Fretz in the circle, who earned the shutout out by allowing just four hits and striking out 11. Warsaw wasn’t able to get a runner past second base, with Shoemaker stranded there twice. Shoemaker had two singles and also drew a walk. Grace Johnson and Abby Glass had the other two hits for the Tigers, which weren’t as sharp as head coach Kevin Dishman would have liked.

“We threw strikes today, and after talking with the girls Saturday, we said maybe we shouldn’t throw as many strikes,” Dishman said. “But our defense let us down today. Our girls built this game into something more than they should have. They really were on the edge and wanted to come up here and do something. To them, they wanted to call it ‘Shock the World.’

“But you have to do the basics. If the ball is in the air, you have to make an out. We have to make plays, and we didn’t. We missed signs. Fundamentally, we just didn’t play well enough today.”

Chookie took the loss for the Tigers, who worked five innings and allowed seven runs – six earned – along with 14 hits, two walks and struck out three. Johnson worked the sixth for the Tigers, which fall to 0-6 overall with a game Wednesday at home against Goshen, the second game of a five-game week.

Wawasee moves to 7-1 overall, with a huge early-season conference test at home Wednesday with Elkhart Memorial. Knipper likes the place his team is in, and hopes it carries over against an improved Memorial squad.

“Memorial either scares the crap out of you or you pound them and wonder how it happened, one of those two things,” Knipper said. “The last couple years, we get early runs and they come back. If we don’t play well and make mistakes, they’ll beat us, doesn’t matter who we have on the mound.”

Warsaw won the JV game 15-7.