Tough day at Championship Park for Pilgrims
Story courtesy of The Pilot News
KOKOMO — It was a long day at the ballpark, literally, as Plymouth dropped a pair of games at Championship Park in Kokomo, game one to Guerin Catholic 13-0 in a six-inning game and losing a three-hour marathon in the nightcap to Western 10-6.
Guerin Catholic 13, Plymouth 0
Plymouth had their hands full right away in game one with a Guerin Catholic team that finished a year ago at 23-3 and returned seven starters and their entire pitching staff including five players already committed to play college baseball.
Golden Eagle starter Cuinn Morrow wasn’t particularly sharp with his off-speed pitches but worked the strike zone effectively enough to keep Plymouth hitters off balance to take the win giving up just one hit. Morrow, a DePauw commit for next season, struck out just two but didn’t walk a hitter in four innings of work.
“We had some guys on early and didn’t get them across,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Wolfe. “(Our pitchers) left a lot of balls up in the zone and you can’t leave balls up against a really good hitting team. We weren’t very effective in location today on fastballs and we were down in a lot of counts.”
Plymouth starter Preston Wolfe went four giving up six runs, striking out four, and walking two and giving up eight hits. Kaden Milliser came on for his first appearance on the mound and struggled to find the strike zone walking four and giving up three runs but was hurt by a couple of crucial Plymouth errors. Freshman Dominick Vasquez got his first inning of work in a varsity game pitching the sixth.
Meanwhile, Plymouth hitters struggled for most of the game managing just one hit and four base runners.
“Pitching is always a little bit ahead of hitting at this point and when you throw strikes like they did it’s tough,” said Wolfe. “We battled. We did some good things defensively. You take away the positives from the day. Do we have some work to do? Yes. It’s the third game of the season and we are still trying to figure some things out with different guys.”
Western 10, Plymouth 6
“That was (pause) a long game,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Wolfe. “We had to have set the record for most pitches in a game between two teams.”
Maybe not quite but in the first three innings Western pitchers walked four and hit two batters, and Plymouth pitchers walked eight making for an almost two-hour first three innings.
Plymouth got on the board first with two out in the opening frame with a two-out walk to Trey Delp who stole second and scored on a Kaden Milliser single.
Plymouth starter Ryan Jolly didn’t make it through the first walking four giving up a pair of hits and four runs.
Aiden Landis came on and got out of the first inning but struggled through the next giving up two walks and four hits and six more runs. Nick Manzuk came on to bring an end to the Western second and got a strikeout facing just two hitters leaving Plymouth facing a 10-1 hill to climb after just two innings.
After that, it was all Malachi Sieh.
“I thought Malachi came in and did a really good job,” said Wolfe. “I think he’s going to be effective for us this year. I thought he did a good job with pitches in the zone and with three games next week we just continue to build to that first conference game.”
Sieh was lights out for the next four innings not surrendering a hit, striking out four, but more importantly, walking just one and allowing just two baserunners in that span.
Meanwhile, Western pitchers continued to struggle to find the plate giving the Pilgrims chances to get back into the game.
Panther coach Ryan Berryman would eventually send seven pitchers to the mound before the end of the game as Plymouth chipped away at the lead scoring two in the second, one more in the fourth, and two more in the fifth, but leaving the bases loaded in the fourth and the fifth and leaving 12 on base in the game.
“I just really wanted to get guys out there and see who’s going to compete,” said Wolfe of game two. “That’s what it’s about. We have to get guys out there who want to compete and battle and grind. The nine on the field may change from game to game depending on who’s on the mound and we have a lot of guys that I feel are going to compete. We came back from 10-3 and had guys on base to get a little closer or even tie it. We have some things to work on but we have some good things today too.”
With a pair of losses headed into a three-game week, Wolfe put the day in perspective.
“It’s about getting guys in and figuring some things out,” said Wolfe, “We have a lot of guys that played last year but also a lot of guys that didn’t play or didn’t play a lot. We’re still trying to figure out the best place in the batting order for guys. It’s a long season and we are going to get back on the grind this week. As a coach, it’s kind of good to have this long bus ride home to figure out where we’re at.”
They will have until Tuesday to come up with the next step as Rochester comes to Bill Nixon Field, followed by South Central on Wednesday and LaVille on Thursday.
The Pilgrims are now 1-3 on the year.
•Game One
Guerin Catholic 13, Plymouth 0 6 innings
at Championship Park, Kokomo
Guerin 0 3 1 2 3 4 13-13-0
Plymouth 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-1-2
WP — Morrow. LP — Wolfe (1-1). 3B — Taylor (G), Dorsey 2 (G). 2B — Taylor (G), Morrow 2 (G), Gremelspacher (G).
•Game Two
Western 10, Plymouth 6
at Championship Park, Kokomo
Plymouth 1 2 0 1 2 0 0 6-7-0
Western 4 6 0 0 0 0 x 10-7-0
WP — Shoemaker. LP — Jolly (0-1).
