LAFAYETTE – It was a rough weekend for Plymouth’s Pilgrims as they finished off a weekend of games at McCutcheon High School with a pair of losses, leading both games into the fourth inning or later only to fall 6-1 to Crown Point and 14-5 to Columbus North.
Crown Point 6, Plymouth 1
A pitchers duel between Dillion Farinelli of Crown Point and Plymouth’s Grant Stukenborg turned into a win for the Bulldogs. Plymouth took a 1-0 lead into the fifth, only to surrender three on four straight hits in the top of the fourth.
Stukenborg took a one hit shut out into that frame and gave up lead off singles to Mike Waither and Alex Ruiz and a two run triple to Luke Adams. Josh Lindeman’s single drove home Adams and that would be all the offense that Crown Point would need to take the win.
Plymouth went ahead in the fourth when Caleb Mikesell led off reaching base on an error, stole second and scored on Braydon Davidson’s single. The Pilgrims could get to Farinelli for just two hits in the game – Davidson’s single and a base hit by Jeremy Drudge.
The Bulldogs plated three more in the seventh off of reliever Cam Dennie with three straight two out hits from Charlie Patririck, Farinelli and Waither.
Columbus North 14, Plymouth 5
Plymouth got on the board first with a three run second and led 5-4 headed to the sixth but 10 runs by Columbus North in that frame broke the game open and sent the Pilgrims home a loser for the third time on the weekend.
“Those are the teams we’re going to have to see later in the tournament, We did a lot of good things this weekend,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Wolfe. “We’re a good ball club whose had a great year so far and we’re not going to let three games stop what our goals are. We’ve achieved some of our goals but we’ve still got a lot to play for and we’re not going to let this weekend deter us from that.”
Caleb Mikesell got the start and got to the sixth with a 5-4 lead. After the first two Bulldog hitters reached base, Mikesell gave way to reliever Jeremy Drudge and the game got away from the Pilgrims. Errors and walks led to a 10 run inning for Columbus North – all scoring without benefit of a hit.
Plymouth meanwhile had seven hits, two of them doubles by Cam Dennie, and a two hit, two RBI game from Dyllon Pavey. Drudge also had a double and RBI for the Pilgrims.
“We played a lot of guys. We got a lot of guys in to play positions and get some at bats you never know what’s going to happen in a week or so,” said Wolfe. “We’re going to re-focus on Monday and get a probably needed four days off before the sectional.”
While little of a positive nature happened to the Pilgrims in the 48 hour period from Friday to Saturday – they also lost starter Cam Eveland indefinitely to an severe ankle injury – there were some things that the Plymouth boss could focus on.
“We saw a lot of guys in different positions than the ones they’ve played,” said Wolfe. “I saw a lot of pitchers battle this weekend through situations. Grant (Stukenborg) pitched well in game one and I felt Caleb (Mikesell) pitched well in game two. We left some people on base in those games that might have been able to put it away. Unfortunately it got away from us.”
Senior night for the Pilgrims (17-10) will be Monday night at Bill Nixon Field against Knox. Game time is 7 p.m.
Game one
Crown Point 0 0 0 0 3 0 3 6-10-0
Plymouth 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1-2-4
WP – Farinelli. LP – Stukenborg. 3B – Adams (CP). 2B – Mike Waither.
Game Two
Plymouth 0 3 2 0 0 0 0 5-8-5
Columbus N. 0 2 1 0 0 10 x 14-4-1
WP – Petrusky. LP – Mikesell. 2B – Dennie 2 (P), Drudge (P).
