PLYMOUTH – It was a typical non-conference night for two teams in a conference title hunt as Logansport came to Bill Nixon Field and came away with a win in a slug fest 11-9.
It was game six in a grinding seven games in eight days weather forced schedule and the Pilgrims as well as the Berries went to their pitching depth to try to pick up an off day win and Logansport’s staff seemed to be just a pitch or two deeper as they hung on to take the win.
“We were hoping that we could stretch some guys pitching wise because of where we are at in the week and Joe (Barron) did a good job,” said Plymouth coach Ryan Wolfe. “He’s young he was a little inconsistent with some pitches there. He had some great innings and he struggled in some innings but we gave ourselves a shot when we had a big inning and just unfortunate that we gave them back.”
Plymouth starter Joe Barron extricated himself from a huge first inning bases loaded no out jam that he created himself, by getting three straight hitters to pop up to end the inning with just one run coming across.
Plymouth answered with two runs of their own on four first inning hits and then added four more in the second to give Barron a 6-1 lead headed to the third. Barron surrendered a third inning two run homer to Tucker Platt but seemed to have things in order when the wheels came off in the fourth.
A combination of three Plymouth throwing errors and three hits blindsided the Pilgrims with seven runs in the inning.
“It seemed to all compound in one inning,” said Wolfe of his team’s plight. “If you make some of those mistakes over the course of the game you can get out of some of those situations but when you have it all happen in one inning with a couple of free bases it balloons. You try to minimize your mistakes and not let one thing snowball into another. We gave ourselves a shot that’s all we can do.”
Plymouth came back and added three of their own in the inning, the big blow a two run homer by Cam Dennie making it 10-9. Thomas Dolan slowed the Berry offense until they forced across an insurance run in the top of the seventh and Plymouth put the tying run aboard in the bottom have but couldn’t pick it up.
We didn’t know what we were going to get out of Thomas (Dolan),” said Wolfe. “He did a heckuva job. His fastball had a little on it he’s only a sophomore we’ll continue to work with him he did a great job tonight.”
As the weather heats up so did the Plymouth bats as they pounded out 12 hits and plated nine runs in their best offensive showing of the season.
“We’ve been doing a good job of having good approaches at the plate,” said Wolfe. “If we can continue to have the approach of hitting the ball in the right center field gap we’re going to hit the ball hard. Our guys this week have had really good approaches. They’ve hit the ball hard and it’s fun to watch. It’s fun for them too. They’re having fun hitting the ball.”
“We’ve got a lot of options to score runs and we’re going to benefit us late in the season,” said Wolfe. “One through eight we have the ability to hit the ball hard, hit the ball in the gaps and it’s pretty tough on the opposing pitcher when the next guy steps in the batters box and he can’t take a hitter off.”
It’s something that Wolfe and his team hope continues as the Pilgrims (6-5, 4-1) face yet another game for first place in the NLC against – you guessed it – NorthWood. The Panthers come into Bill Nixon Field Friday night, unbeaten in conference play for a 5 p.m. start.
•LOGANSPORT 11, PLYMOUTH 9
at Bill Nixon Field
Logansport 1 0 2 7 0 0 1 11-9-1
Plymouth 2 4 0 3 0 0 0 9-12-3
WP – Morgan. LP – Barron. HR – Dennie (P), Platt (L). 2B – Nixon (P), Pesak (P).