ELKHART – Plymouth’s Pilgrims got well fast taking a big 10-0 NLC win on the road at Elkhart Memorial.
“You don’t see eight runs in the first inning very often,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Wolfe after the win. “I wanted to get off to a quick start. We had some good at bats.”
Something else you don’t see a lot of is two home runs in the first inning – even rarer when the come off the bat of the same player. Plymouth shortstop Justin Drudge accomplished that feat hitting the second pitch of the game over the fence in left, and six runs later hit a 2-2 offereing down the left field line for another.
Drudge responded big time to Ryan Wolfe shuffling his batting order trying to get a spark. The senior provided it with a 3 for 4 night with 4 RBI’s
“Justin led off for us as a sophomore,” said Wolfe. “I kinda wanted to get the motor going a little bit. None of our guys have done a bad job leading off we just needed to shake something up. I was hoping with his pop maybe he could hit a couple doubles and those guys at the bottom of the lineup have been getting on – maybe he can drive them in. He put two good swings on em.”
Braydon Davidson was staked to a huge early lead, but still made pitches in key spots to preserve a shut out and his first win.
“It’s tough. Sometimes you get a lead like that and you can lose your focus,” said Wolfe. “There were a few times early they got two or three people on. They could have crept back in it but he made pitches when he needed to.”
The Pilgrims also responded to a night off, and to a “must win” situation.
“That’s essentially all we talked about last night. We aren’t out of the conference race by any means,” said Wolfe. “That’s one of our attainable goals, that and the sectional. We may be the best 6-8 team in the area. I think tonight kind of proved it.
“Pitching hasn’t been an issue. If we get the bats going we can be dangerous.”
Plymouth is now 7-8 on the year and 4-4 in the NLC with another road game at Concord on Friday. Memeorial falls to 8-9 and 3-5 in the conference.
Linescore
Plymouth 8 0 2 0 0 10-12-1
Elk. Mem. 0 0 0 0 0 0-3-1
WP – Davidson (1-3). LP – Oley. HR – Drudge 2 (P). 2B – Asbury (EM), Smith (P).
