WARSAW – Plymouth’s Pilgrims took their first NLC road trip and came away with a tough loss at Warsaw by a 7-5 final.
The Pilgrims appeared they might have one more magical finish in the tank after two straight walk off conference wins, but Tiger pitcher Kevin Hawley responded to the challenge. After the Pilgrims plated three in the seventh to crawl back to within two Hawley finished it getting an outstanding defensive play from centerfielder Sterling Hay who made a rolling, diving catch of Brandon Milligan’s line drive to seal the win.
“We gave ourselves a chance to win, but when you don’t get off the bus for a few innings you dig yourself a hole,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Wolfe. “We really played one inning at the plate, we got three runs their with the tying run on base. That’s really all you can ask of yourself when your down five in the bottom of the seventh.”
Plymouth could manage just one hit – Justin Drudge’s RBI triple in the third – Until the games final inning when they put up five and scored three runs.
Meanwhile the Tigers took advantage of some uncharacteristically shoddy defense in the fourth, to put up four runs and essentially put the game out of reach. The Pilgrims struggled to deal with the bunt – something that hasn’t been a problem all season – and Warsaw was able to put on enough pressure to gain a cushion.
“I don’t think we were ready to go tonight mentally,” said Wolfe. “We threw a lot of pitches. I think in the six innings we probably threw over 120 pitches combined. We got ahead of some hitters but then we got behind. A lot of hitters counts tonight. When you do that any hitter will put some good swings on it.”
Warsaw’s Sterling Hay had a big night at the plate – 3-3 with three RBI’s. Cole Baker also had a pair of hits and RBI’s and Marsello Rodriguez was two for two with a double. Alonjg with Drudge’s 2 for 4 night Plymouth got an RBI single from Braydon Davidson and an RBI double from Elijah Nixon.
Four Plymouth pitchers battled but couldn’t shut the Tigers down.
“With Joey (Dragani) being out sometimes we have to pitch by committee,” said Wolfe. “I tell our guys when it’s your time out give us what you got. It wasn’t enough tonight but I know it will be the next time out.”
“I really think we never got any real rythym up there at all. I didn’t feel our guys were ever really comfortable. We we did get guys on base we couldn’t get anything done.”
Plymouth returns to Bill Nixon Field Saturday at 11 a.m to battle LaPorte.
Linescore
Plymouth 0 0 1 0 0 1 3 5-7-1
Warsaw 1 0 1 4 1 0 x 7-10-2
WP – LaFollette. LP – Milligan. S – Hawley. 3B – Drudge (P). 2B – Rodriguez (W), Nixon (P).
