PLYMOUTH – It was a tough opening night at Bill Nixon Field as Plymouth’s Pilgrims played well but not well enough to beat South Bend St. Joe falling by a score of 1-0.

“It comes down to when you get the hits not how many you get,” said Plymouth coach Ryan Wolfe. “They had a guy at third and got a sac fly. They had a great play and threw a guy out at third. Pitchers are probably ahead of the hitters at this point. We hit some balls hard but hit them right at people. Maybe we were overly aggressive at the end swinging at some balls we should have taken but over all it’s a good ball game.”

The Pilgrims could manage just three hits off St. Joe starter James Whiteman and reliver Connor Gentry – never really mounting a serious offensive threat against the Indians until Justin Drudge’s two out double in the fourth. It was the great play Wolfe alluded to when Drudge was thrown out trying to stretch the hit into a triple with a perfect relay throw from right fielder Carlos Matvovina to second baseman Tony Carmola to third baseman Riley Stesiak for the out.

Plymouth managed a runner at third only once in the game when Spencer Maecroft led off the fifth with a single and move to third on Bailey Clark’s single but a fielders choice by Brandon Milligan led to the innings third out by Cam Eveland before a run could cross.

“It was good baseball,” said Wolfe. “When you have good teams playing it comes down to little things getting the guy to third or getting a ground ball when you need one. They were able to make that one play. We had some opportunities – not many -but when you do you have to have capitalize with a hit. They did a good job of minimizing our ability to get on base.”

Wolfe had to feel good about his own pitchers and their ability of minimizing St. Joe chances to get on base. Plymouth pitchers made big pitches especially having the ability to go to off speed pitches in hitters counts to get outs.

“That’s just a sign of being old and mature on the mound,” said Wolfe. “You have (Joe) Dragani whose been out there three plus years and Cody Gamble who’s always around the plate, last year they were close to 65 percent strike percentage and that’s great. Those guys are right around the plate. In a game like this it comes down to one pitch.”

Defense too was at a premium for the Pilgrims.

“We made that a big point of emphasis,” said Wolfe. “Last year we had 24 more errors than other teams. With our pitchers being around the plate being able to make plays behind them we can be pretty tough.”

“The guys feel confident in each other. Last year this game was 10-0. It kind of left a sour taste in our mouth right away. We battled and had a heckuva year last year. This just shows you what kind team we have. We’re just going to keep grinding.”

 

Plymouth will be back in action at Bill Nixon Field on Friday with a game against South Central.

Linescore

St. Joe 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 1-7-1

Plymouth 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-3-2

 

WP – James Whiteman. LP – Cody Gamble. S – Connor Gentry. 2B – Drudge (P).