PLYMOUTH – A disastrous seventh led to a Plymouth NLC loss at home against rival Warsaw by a 3-2 final.
In a game where starter Cam Dennie didn’t give up a hit until two were out in the sixth, Warsaw found a way to plate three runs in the top of the seventh to steal a win from the Pilgrims on two key defensive miscues at the end of the game.
Alex Miller led off the seventh with a single and Dennie then struck out designated hitter Liam Patton. He then walked Braxton Tennent and gave up another single to Luke Baker to load the bases.
That’s when things also went awry defensively as Plymouth righ fielder Nate Nixon was unable to glove a fly ball hit by Bryce Sensibaugh with the error allowing Miller to cross with the first run and then a grounder by Jordan Steffensmeier was fielded by second baseman Noah Pesak throwing to shortstop Benji Nixon at second for one out. Trying to complete the double play Nixon’s throw was in the dirt skipping past Ezra Winkle and allowing Tennant and Baker to score the tying and lead runs.
Plymouth went out in order in the bottom of the seventh to seal the Warsaw win.
“It’s one we should have won,” said Plymouth coach Ryan Wolfe. “It’s going to leave a sour taste in your mouth and it should. That’s pretty disappointing but give them credit. We still have to find a way to do it. They get the lead off guy on, we walk a guy and a couple errors in the inning it’s going to get you every time when you give them three free base runners.”
Plymouth scored first in the fourth inning when Winkle, Pesak and Jesus Luva strung together singles. They struck again in the sixth when Grant Stukenborg led off with a hit, pinch runner Colten Schuler moved ahead on a perfect sacrifice bunt from Winkle and scored on another two out hit by Luva.
Meanwhile Plymouth pitcher Dennie took a no hitter into the sixth ending the night striking out six walking two – both in the seventh and giving up three hits – two of those in the decisive seventh.
“I thought we played great defensively all game,” said Wolfe. “We had a ball dropped in the outfield I felt should have been caught and another error in the infield and that’s a tough one to swallow.”
On a big week of baseball the Pilgrimsdon’t have a lot of time to recover as Goshen comes to town on Wednesday for a date at Bill Nixon Field, Thursday non-conference foe Marian comes to town, and Friday they hit the road to Wawasee.
“It is what it is,” said Wolfe. “We play Wednesday. It’s baseball and hopefully it doesn’t affect us, we still have a lot of baseball left to play. Hopefully we use it and continue to move on.”
Plymouth moves 10-8 on the year and 5-6 in the NLC.
Warsaw 0 0 0 0 0 0 3 3-3-0
Plymouth 0 0 0 1 0 1 0 0-7-2
WP – Jordan Jones. LP – Cam Dennie.
