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WARSAW – New York Yankees legend Yogi Berra would have been proud of the Warsaw baseball team on Wednesday night. The Tigers made it known that Berra had a point when he famously said, “It’s not over till it’s over.”

Warsaw stunned its county rivals by scoring 10 unanswered runs to beat Tippecanoe Valley 12-10 in a game that showed the talents and downfalls of both clubs.

Facing a 10-2 deficit in the bottom of the fifth inning, Warsaw found itself with the bases loaded and just one out. A wild pitch allowed Dean Katris to score from third leaving two runners in scoring position for Tyler LaFollette. The Tiger senior capitalized on his opportunity with a double, scoring both Justin Oberlin and Ethyn Bradley. The small burst of runs gave Warsaw hope now down only 10-5 going into the sixth.

The Tiger defense saved its best play for the top of the sixth inning, retiring all three Viking batters in order to head to the bottom half of the frame with a huge boost of confidence and momentum.

Again the Tigers found themselves with the bases loaded, this time with no outs. Justin Oberlin hammered home Peter Shepherd and Caleb Heckaman to inch the Tigers closer, 10-7. Katris again crossed the plate for Warsaw after a questionable balk call on Valley reliever Luke Helton. LaFollette drove home Oberlin on a fielder’s choice.

Warsaw found itself with the bases loaded yet again in the sixth inning, this time Shepherd, who led off the inning for the Tigers, stepped back to the plate for the home team. Shepherd wasted no time, smacking a line drive into left field. The clutch hit by the senior catcher sent home Brandon Shipp, Caleb Moneyheffer and Kevin Hawley to give the Tigers a 12-10 advantage, their first lead of the game.

Moneyheffer left his post at first base in the top of the seventh and took over as the closer for Warsaw. Alec Craig got on with a single to give the Vikings a runner with no outs. Craig was thrown out at second after a failed hit-and-run call with Tanner Andrews at the plate. Andrews then turned the next pitch into a single.

Moneyheffer put an end to any comeback by the Vikings by turning a double play after snagging a liner by Isaac Shewman and throwing Andrews out at first to secure the Tigers first win of the season.

Click here to see a video of the Vikings crossing two runners on Wednesday night.

Jonathan Murphy picked up the win for Warsaw (1-1) while Helton took the loss for Valley (1-3). Andrews took a no decision for Valley after leaving the game with a 10-2 lead. Andrews pitched four innings, fanning six batters and picking up just three unearned runs.

Shewman led all batters with four RBIs. LaFollette and Shepherd both had three RBIs for the Tigers. Valley had 13 hits and two errors as a team. Warsaw had just seven hits and five errors.

The win was by a huge relief for Tiger head coach Mike Hepler, whose team has given up 11 unearned runs in its first two games.

“That was a heck of a game,” said Hepler. “First, we have to get a lot of credit to Tanner Andrews, he threw the ball very well. He is going to give a lot of teams a lot of fits this season. I think one of the things that helped us is when they took him out of the game, we felt a little more confident at that point at the plate.

“I told the guys to just start putting balls in play. When we were down 6-1 in the second inning, I told them that there was still a lot of baseball to be played. I didn’t want them to try and do more than what they were capable of. Then we are down 10-2 and suddenly, we have a seven run inning and end up coming out on top. It’s just kind of a weird thing that happens. It’s high school baseball, especially early.”

While the 10-2 lead was nice while it lasted, Valley head coach Brandon Cody knows his team may have been enjoying it too much.

“We definitely had a problem with being comfortable today,” said a perturbed Cody. “We just settled in too much and let them (Warsaw) stick around and we payed for it.

“We need to be able to keep the energy up the whole game. When we were up 10-2, everybody was hooping and hollering in the dugout. We have to keep that going the whole time, even when things start to go south. We lost the energy and we lost the game.”

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Valley will play Bremen in a double header at home. Warsaw will play at Bethel College against South Bend Clay on Thursday night and return home against Columbia City on Friday.