BENTON — When the postseason comes around it’s all about survive and advance.

“At this point in the year it’s, ‘Just win’, and we got the win,” said Wawasee head coach Jared Knipper.

Knipper’s team struggled at times but managed to pull of a 4-1 victory over West Noble in the open game of the IHSAA Class 3-A Sectional at Fairfield.

“We know we’re going to keep teams from lightning up the scoreboard,” Knipper continued, “and if we can just avoid mistakes then we’ll be okay. We made one mistake tonight and it led to a run. You make that play and it’s a shutout.”

Knipper was referring to West Noble’s lone run which was scored by Angela Gross in the bottom of the first inning. Gross, in as a courtesy runner, knocked the ball out of Wawasee’s catcher Graceanne Kerlin’s mitt on her way home to bring the Chargers within one, 2-1, early on.

“We’ll chalk that one up to rookie nerves,” Knipper said of his freshman catcher’s rare mistake. “The ball came in and she tried to lay a hard tag on the kid and she didn’t need to. She just needed to tap her and move on but she tried to plant one on her and the ball popped out.

“From what I could see, she had both hands on the glove, I’m not even real sure how it popped out. She knows for next time, when the runner is out by 20 or more feet, just tap them.”

Kerlin was solid behind the plate outside of that one play and started what would be come the biggest double play of the night for the Warriors.

With runners on second and third and one out in the bottom of the seventh, Kerlin fielded a softly hit ball and got the ball to Meghan Fretz at first for the out. Meanwhile the runner from third started towards home, Fretz gunned the ball back towards home where pitcher Amber Lemberg applied the game-ending tag, completing the 2-3-1 double play.

Wawasee’s defense was the story of the game. The Warriors seemed to be in the right spot at the right time, save for the first few moments of the seventh.

“I was not satisfied with our hitting, compared to what we’ve been doing in the past,” Knipper said.

Wawasee’s struggled to get things going early in innings as all four runs came with two outs on the board. The Warriros did finish with 11 hits, but getting those runners home was the difficult part.

Allissa Flores cracked a solo home run in the top of the fifth, which extended Wawasee’s lead to 3-1. Meghan Fretz added insurance with an RBI in the top of the seventh. Fretz also had an RBI in the first inning. Kylee Rostochak scored the game’s first run on an error. Fretz was 4-4 on the day.

Amber Lemberg was solid in the circle as she pitched all seven innings and recorded eight strikeouts.

Wawasee (23-5) advances to play NorthWood (16-10) in the first of two semifinals on Tuesday back at Falcon Field at 5 p.m. NorthWood defeated Tippecanoe Valley 11-1 in the second game on Monday. The Panthers and Warriors split their season series in the Northern Lakes Conference. NorthWood was the only team to beat Wawasee in NLC play.

Fairfield and Lakeland play the evening’s second semifinal. The Falcons won the regular season contest against the Lakers 4-0.