PLYMOUTH — It was a cold night for baseball but the Plymouth bats continued to be hot as they erupted for a 23 run third inning in taking a 31-0 win over a very young Triton team at Bill Nixon Field.
Triton coach Mark Elliott fielded a team that featured three freshman and two sophomores all playing in their first year of high school baseball after the lost COVID year and the greater experience of the Plymouth squad was a clear factor.
Triton starter Jacob Pitney did all he could but couldn’t hold back a barrage in inning number three.
Plymouth head coach Ryan Wolfe was unavailable for comment after the game having left late in the contest to be present at his son’s induction into the national honor society, but assistant coach Tony Plothow no doubt echoed the Plymouth bosses thoughts.
“It was a good night tonight for our pitchers,” said Plothow. “Matt (Dobuck) started out well tonight throwing strikes. He’s had two good outings.”
“We knew this was our last game before we hit the conference schedule and we wanted to play well defensively, put a bat on the ball, and play fundamental baseball,” he said.
Dobuck continued his scrapbook start to the season with a 3-5 night at the plate with a pair of doubles and two more RBIs.
On the mound, he got his second win of the new season going two innings with five strikeouts, no walks, and one hit.
“If you’ve come to our early games you look at Matt Dobuck and think that’s an all-state player,” said Plothow. “The way he’s fielding the ball, the way he’s hitting. He’s still figuring some things out on the mound, but he’s looked good and we have some guys that we feel good about and can trust on the mound too.”
After a somewhat rough opening night at St. Joe, the Pilgrims have matured quickly putting together four solid performances in a row.
“We’ve come a long way in a short period of time,” said Plothow. “We decided to have our catchers just worry about catching and not worry about hitting and that’s helped. That’s a spot where if we get those guys playing like they can we have them for three years if they keep improving every game.”
There was little to not like about the Plymouth bats. The Pilgrims picked up 25 hits and didn’t make an error in the game.
Skylar Aker and Matt Manzuk came alive in a big way for the Pilgrims with Aker posting a 4-6 night with 5 RBIs. Manzuk was a perfect 4-4 with 4 RBIs. Tanner Feece had a pair of hits and drove in four.
For the Trojans, Zak Greer led off the game with a single, and center fielder Braydon Cunningham had a single and reached base twice posting some solid defense in the outfield.
The night is the last tune-up for the Pilgrims before they start the grind of the NLC season, beginning Monday at Bill Nixon Field.
“We have some fun games,” said Plothow. “We have Mishawaka here for the first time in the conference, we go to Fort Wayne to play Warsaw and then come back here to take on LaPorte. It’s hopefully a fun week.”
“These guys are all in,” he said. “You can tell that by the way, they come to practice. They are together, they get along pretty well.”
“This will be a big week for us,” said Plothow. “Hopefully we’ll keep putting the bat on the ball and not giving people extra outs.”
Plymouth is now 3-2 with a game at Bill Nixon Field on Monday at 5:30 p.m. against Mishawaka. Triton is now 0-3 and starts HNAC play with a home and home series with Knox starting at Triton on Monday and Knox on Tuesday.
•PLYMOUTH 31, TRITON 0
at Bill Nixon Field
Triton 0 0 0 0 0 0-2-8
Plymouth 5 3 23 0 x 31-25-0
WP — Dobuck (2-0). LP — Pitney. 2B — Dobuck (P) 2, Feece (P), Shively (P).
