PLYMOUTH – There were some anxious moments but when the cold night was over Plymouth’s Pilgrims had their third straight NLC win at Bill Nixon Field over Warsaw by a 7-4 final.
The game was originally scheduled for Warsaw but moved since the Pilgrims field was playable on an inclimate night and neither team wanted to lose a game to the weather this early in the season. The second game in the double round robin NLC schedule will move to Warsaw.
Plymouth pitcher Jesus Luva took the mound for the first time in the new season and was touched for two runs in the second inning and another in the third before giving way to reliever Jacob Deacon in the fourth. Meanwhile Warsaw starter Noah Burgh was sailing shutting down the Plymouth attack.
“They (Warsaw) hit fastballs, they are aggressive,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Wolfe. “When (Jacob) Deacon came in he was able to mix it up with the slider and the fastball, and he can throw those in any count. He really messed with them a little there.”
“We’ve been able to hold some of those guys off the past couple of games to have for the back end of the bullpen tonight,” said Wolfe. “We didn’t know what we were going to get from Chuy in his first start. He battled to get out of some jams there that could have gotten bigger, and we were able to hand the ball to Deacon.”
Burgh ran into a little trouble in the third when Grant Dexter had the first Plymouth hit and scored the first Plymouth run, but Burgh extricated himself from further trouble, picking Deacon off of first base, his second pickoff of a Plymouth runner in the game.
“It was one of those games where early on we made some mistakes,” said Wolfe. “Some of the aggressiveness we’ve had early on may have backfired on us a little bit there. We’ve been able to get big leads, and be aggressive and they had a good battery tonight that held guys on, a great catcher (Liam Patton) with a great arm and a pitcher (Burgh) with a wicked move.”
“It took us a little bit out of some of the things we were used to doing but then the bats came alive and we were able to put some across,” he said.
The Plymouth bats did come alive in the fourth when Cole Filson and Ezra Winkle led off the inning with back to back doubles, but the big blow in the inning was by Ivan Winkle with a huge two out single with two strikes that tied the game.
“He was up there battling and fought off a ball up in the zone and drives it up the middle,” said Wolfe. “That was one of the biggest hits of the game.”
Plymouth broke it open in the fifth when Ezra Winkle drove one in with his second double of the night and he and Filson were able to score on wild pitches to put the Pilgrims up to stay.
Deacon worked out of a jam in the seventh with the tying run at the plate and no outs but got Jacob Hutcherson to ground into a game ending double play.
Plymouth moves to 7-1 on the year and stays perfect at 3-0 in NLC play. The Pilgrims take on LaPorte at Bill Nixon Field today at noon, weather permitting. Warsaw is 3-6 and 0-3 in the NLC.
•PLYMOUTH 7, WARSAW 4
at Bill Nixon Field
Warsaw 0 2 1 1 0 0 0 4-9-3
Plymouth 0 0 1 3 3 0 x 7-11-2
WP – Deacon. LP – Burgh. 2B – E. Winkle 2 (P), Filson (P), Lyon (W).
