Danica Mast was excellent for Fairfield, pitching seven scoreless innings. (Photos by Nick Goralczyk)

LAGRANGE – Maybe the expectations were too high. Maybe it was not meant to be. Maybe they just were not ready. A very promising season for the Wawasee softball team came to an abrupt end Wednesday night in the semi-finals of the Lakeland Sectional.

Wednesday’s game picked up in the third inning after being suspended due to rain on Tuesday evening. Fairfield avenged a semi-final defeat from 2014 with a 3-0 victory over the defending sectional champions.

“It’s just another game, that’s how you have to play it,” began Wawasee head coach Jared Knipper. “You’ve gotta play better than the other team to win and we didn’t do that tonight.”

A scoreless tie between the two teams was finally broken by Fairfield in the fourth inning with the help of a pair of Lady Warrior errors. A fielding and throwing error by Wawasee led to an RBI for Jenean Schwartz, who drove in Jalisa Schwartz to give the home team a 1-0 lead. The errors were Wawasee’s only two of the game but they gave Fairfield the momentum needed to finish strong.

Wawasee hit the ball well throughout the game, but never got the hits needed to start a big inning. In the first through fourth innings the Lady Warriors left five runners on base, three in scoring position. In the fifth through seventh innings Wawawasee never produced a baserunner.

“It starts on the mound,” said Fairfield coach John Skibbe. “Danica (Mast) just did a super job. She was hitting her spots, mixing up speeds and locations. That’s where it starts and she was bound and determined that this was not going to be the last game she pitched.”

Wawasee’s Hannah Haines fields a bunt and throws out Alexis Zook at first.

Mast, a senior, gave up three hits and one walk in seven innings pitched while striking out three Wawasee batters. Mickayla Wallace, also a senior, came through in a huge way for her team in the bottom of the sixth to help secure the win.

Wallace launched a towering two-run homer into right-center field, putting her team up 3-0 and seemingly sucking all of the momentum out of Wawasee’s dugout.

“What a great hit there by Wallace, another one of our seniors,” Skibbe continued. “She’s been super for us all year at third base and getting big hits. She’s come through at the plate all season and did it again for us tonight.”

Wallace was 2-2 with two RBIs and reached on a walk. Meghan Fretz, Paige Hlutke and Madi Wilson all had one hit each for Wawasee.

Jalisa Schwartz hustles home for the evening’s first run.

While the sting might not go away for Wawasee immediately, the Lady Warriors return all but one player to next year’s roster. But, as Knipper knows, that one player will be missed.

“We’ve got to get better, but we only lose one,” Knipper said. “We lose a key piece with Paige (Hlutke) graduating. She’ll leave some huge shoes to fill as far as leadership and calling the game and knowing how to call pitches. We lose a huge piece of the puzzle with her being gone, she’s been instrumental in what we’ve done the past two years.

“But, we have eight, really nine girls returning that we can count on. We have two girls that we can put behind the plate to make plays, just not at the level Paige has done. We have seven sophomores and five juniors that will return with the expectation to do bigger things next year.”

Wawasee completes perhaps its best season in program history with its first-ever Northern Lakes Conference title and a 20-6 record.

Fairfield (21-6) will advance to play Whitko (16-7) for the sectional title Thursday night at 7:00 p.m.

Paige Hlutke rounds second in the first inning for Wawasee. Hlutke was Wawasee’s lone senior.