SYRACUSE — Ethan Nicodemus was a one-man wrecking crew when Whitko needed him most.

Nicodemus plated two runs and scored a pair of runs of his own, and took on four innings of relief pitching as Whitko rallied for a 7-3 baseball win at Wawasee Tuesday afternoon.

While the junior was effective on the mound, working four innings of one-hit relief of starter Alex Stoddard, his work at the plate was the crushing blow. Whitko put on the first two runners in the top of the sixth but then made a pair of outs. With runners on the corners and two outs with the score tied at three, Tanner Gaff brought one home on an RBI double. Nicodemus then crushed a two-run single that broke open the game, giving the Wildcats a 6-3 lead.

Given the way Nicodemus was pitching, it was plenty of insurance.

“We really have two number ones with Ethan and Alex,” began Whitko head coach Erik Hisner. “They have been like that for three years. I have two guys that we can start or bring out of the bullpen. I thought Ethan came in and did a great job. He threw strikes and worked fast and the defense played well behind him. I thought he was one of the difference makers.”

Nicodemus struck out five, including the final two outs of the game, and worked out of a jam in the sixth. Wawasee opened the bottom of the sixth with a walk by Gage Reinhard and a single by Austin Yoder, and moved the runners up on a sacrifice. But Nicodemus then got Isaac Rigdon to pop to second and Derrick Sorensen to chase a pitch out of the zone to end the threat.

“That kid took the mound like the mentality that we want our pitchers to have,” Wawasee head coach Eric Screeton said of Nicodemus. “He had that fire, he wasn’t going to be denied today. He came right at us. We had to call time a couple times. We like that energy, that was a good teaching point for our guys. Here he comes. He was not going to be denied on the mound. We like that, he is good.”

Nicodemus and Ryan Weigold each scored on a single by Avery Robbins in the third inning, and Weigold drove home Nicodemus to complete the sixth-inning scoring for the Wildcats, now 4-1 on the season.

Wawasee managed just five hits off the two Whitko hurlers, but made its early chances count. Brett Carson and Nate Prescott both had sacrifice flies while Rigdon had an RBI single.

Wawasee starting pitcher Gage Fannin didn’t have his ‘A’ stuff against Whitko, but kept the Warriors in the ballgame. Fannin worked five innings, allowing just five hits and three earned runs, walking three and fanning four. Whitko did its damage on Warrior relief pitcher Jordan Currie, who gave up five hits and all four runs in the sixth.

“I feel like we are still fighting behind everybody with practice schedules and everything in this past week (of spring break),” said Screeton, whose club lost its first game of the season, 10-1, to East Noble Monday night. “(Whitko) are into their fifth game, East Noble was into their fourth game last night. It’s the execution. We are starting to get the pieces into the right places, now we just have to execute.”

Both teams face a similar predicament in the coming days – Norwell. The Wildcats will face the Knights Wednesday afternoon while the Warriors (0-2) will travel to Ossian Friday for a rare matchup between the two teams. But before that, the Warriors will host Columbia City Thursday afternoon.

“When we play state-ranked teams like Norwell or Northfield, if we play like we did tonight, it’s going to be a quick one,” Hisner echoed overviewing his postgame with his club. “We just have to get better. We had a lot of mental mistakes. Physical mistakes are going to happen. I thought we had a lot of mental mistakes. We messed up a bunt coverage that led to a run. Right after I went out to the mound and said here is what we are going to do.

“Just little things like that. Little things we just have to get better at.”