SYRACUSE – It was a second night of playing to the final out as the Plymouth kept pace with the leaders in the NLC by taking a 14-4 road win in six innings over Wawasee.
The Pilgrims jumped out to a big lead early – Cam Dennie, Jackson Lee and Jake Deacon driving home first inning runs and Deacon adding another two RBIs in the second as part of a five run inning.
It was a good thing since Plymouth starter Jesus Luva struggled to find anything but did find some luck as he got out of a bases loaded jam in the first by picking a runner off base, and got the benefit of a slick double play in the third to get out of another bases loaded jam.
Luva gets his third win on the year but had lots of help as he walked seven and scattered five hits giving up two runs.
“He’s got to be better,” said Wolfe. “Thats seven walks. He does compete but we’ve got to be able to throw strikes. He competed, that’s what he does. But he knows that he’s got to be a little better in the strike zone.”
Plymouth hitters were good in the strike zone pounding out 10 more hits but it was one of those games where they couldn’t quite throw the final knock out blow, and the Warriors could never get a big hit to make the come back, leaving the bases loaded in four of the six innings.
“They may have hung their heads a little bit early after we put the runs up on them early but they got two back, they were competing and we just had to keep the pressure on them,” said Wolfe. “We can not have enough runs in conference play. In the back of my mind was them putting up 11 runs and 16 runs in conference games so far so we couldn’t score enough.”
Not able to put the game away in five, Plymouth got a spark from a one out suicide squeeze in the fifth from Thomas Dolan that pushed the Pilgrims to three more in that frame with two out. The Pilgrims needed two more in the sixth to finally end the game.
“We haven’t suicide squeezed in a long time but we practice on that and we’ve worked on it a lot to be ready at any time and I just felt that it was the right time,” said Wolfe. “Thomas did a great job and got us rolling even though we were up it just never felt like we had enough.”
“It was another game where our guys did a great job putting pressure on the defense and getting great reads on balls in the dirt and taking extra bases,” said Wolfe. “We are athletic and we continue to put pressure on people.”
Benji Nixon came on to close it out with an inning and a third of relief striking out two and giving up a run.
“Our MVP of the game was Jackson (Lee),” said Wolfe of his catcher’s play. “He saved so many bases by blocking balls he did a fantastic job and worked his butt off.”
Cam Dennie had a three hit night with a pair of doubles and RBIs.
Plymouth moves to 6-4 and keeps pace with the leaders in the NLC with a 4-1 mark. They will end the week at home, taking on Logansport Thursday night at Bill Nixon Field and then Friday NorthWood comes to town undefeated in NLC play at 5-0.
•PLYMOUTH 14, WAWASEE 4
at Wawasee
Plymouth 3 5 0 0 4 2 14-11-2
Wawasee 0 2 0 0 1 1 4-9-5
WP – Luva. LP – Norris. 2B – Dennie 2 (P), Nixon (P).
