PLYMOUTH – A pair of home runs – one a grand slam from Bremen product Andrew Cullers – led an offensive eruption by Plymouth’s Post 27 Diamond Spyders in taking a 16-0 win over Valparaiso Post 94.
Cullers went deep to spur a seven run third that blew the game open for Plymouth and Matt Pritz hit a two run bomb as part of a seven run sixth that would lead the Spyders to the win. Cullers had a remarkable night at the plate adding a pair of doubles to his 3 for 3 night.
“You tap dance on a land mine long enough it’s going to explode eventually,” said Post 27 Manager Will Hostrawser. “These guys found some things tonight. I thought we were opportunistic, we didn’t leave too many runners in scoring position and we had some good base running behind all of it that let us take advantage of some things.”
Center fielder Caleb Mikesell two for four with a double and pair of runs scored and Braydon Davidson had a pair of hits and three runs scored.
The offense was nice but one constant to the season remained constant – strong pitching.
Starter Dylan Hensley took the win with four innings of one hit, shut out work. He walked three but he also struck out three and dominated the Valparaiso lineup. Grant Stukenborg also rebounded with a strong relief performance throwing three innings of two hit ball.
“We still trying to figure out who’s our number one and all that stuff and I won’t say that Dylan is that but he sure made a great case for it tonight,” said Hostrawser. “He didn’t have his off speed working that well early in the ball game and Coach (Nick) Chaney talked to him and made a few adjustments in the dugout and he started coming to it later in the game.
“Grant Stukenborg coming in late in the game, we knew we weren’t going to have him this weekend and we knew we were going to use him to keep Dylan’s pitch count down. He had good command kept it down in the zone and guys made plays behind him.”
Running their record to 4-1 on the young season with a long weekend in Defiance, Ohio coming up the Diamond Spyders will now have their depth tested with 4 games in two days over the weekend and returning for a single game Monday at Four Winds Field in South Bend.
“These kids are starting to gel. You’re seeing guys are finding their roles,” said Hostrawser. “We’re trying to figure that out and that’s part of the fun of this. Guys mesh in. They just want to get on the field and play and contribute any way they can.”
Linescore
Post 94 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-4-4
Post 27 0 2 7 0 0 7 x 16-13-2
WP – Dylan Hensley. LP – Joe Morris. HR – Cullers (P), Pritz (P). 2B – Cullers 2 (P), Mikesell (P).
