PLYMOUTH – It was a beautiful day for baseball but the baseball wasn’t all that beautiful for the Plymouth Pilgrims as they opened their season at Bill Nixon Field with a 10-0 loss at the hands of South Bend St. Joe.
A lot of it had to do with the Indians – ranked number two in the state of Indiana in 3A – and Purdue bound pitcher Tyler Beck who, while not overpowering, was consistently attacking the strike zone and making key pitches to get out of any possible problems. Beck gave up two hits and struck out four in his three innings of work.
Meanwhile Plymouth starter Jacob Frantz struggled early surrendering a grand slam home run to Dylan Scott on just his ninth pitch of the game and having difficulty throwing pitches where he wanted them. The result was a seven run first inning that essentially was the story of the game.
“It definitely wasn’t what we expected,” said Plymout coach Ryan Wolfe. “You have to give them credit for taking advantage of some mistakes we made in that first inning. You couple some freebies with some errors and six hits your going to put a crooked number on the board and that’s what they did.”
Frantz got little help from a Plymouth defense in the first inning that committed three errors, but in spite of it all the Plymouth senior lefty was able to right the ship and stop the bleeding to the game’s third inning.
“Jacob did a good job after that first inning,” said Wolfe. “He was nervous, I think he might have let some things affect him. He was pumped up to go today and that may have led to some of his problems. It’s tough, it’s all about feel and it’s tough getting it back. He was a great pitcher for us last year he’s going to be again this year.”
One thing the Pilgrims can smile about is the performance of Cody Gamble in relief of Frantz. Gamble came on in the third and had the Indians off stride changing speeds and location to keep the Pilgrims in the game.
Gamble also had one of the Pilgrims only three hits in the game singling in the fifth. Blake Milliser and Brayden Davidson had the other two Plymouth singles.
“You take away that first inning we played alright,” said Wolfe. “We squared some balls up and I thought that Cody (Gamble) did a good job coming in and throwing strikes. Joe Smith made a great play in right field.
“I didn’t think we quit. We’ll sit down and see I’m just not sure we were ready to play today. We’ll battle back, the only negative thing is that we won’t get a chance to see them again and have a chance prove ourselves.”
The Pilgrims will have to wait a week to prove themselves with Bremen next on the schedule next Wednesday at Bill Nixon Field.
LINESCORE
St. Joe 7 0 3 0 0 10-11-0
Plymouth 0 0 0 0 0 0-3-3
WP – Tyler Beck. LP – Jacob Frantz. HR – Dylan Scott (SJ). 2B – Scott (SJ).
