Plymouth comes up short in wild finish
PLYMOUTH — Plymouth’s varsity baseball team came up one run short in a roller coaster game that had a wild final inning, falling to Mishawaka at Bill Nixon Field by a final of 8-7.
“I don’t even know what to say,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Wolfe. “It’s frustrating. It’s about freebies. Our guys battled, but one play can be the game. You may not know it at the time, but you have to make a play. We had four errors. This is a game where you look back and see that one out can win you the game.”
Plymouth jumped out in front early, scoring in the first two innings, but after two Plymouth errors in the third, Shawn Nowacki made them pay with a three-run homer that would prove to be the game winner.
Plymouth loaded the bases in the sixth with no outs, but Mishawaka reliever Landon Johns quickly righted the ship, getting out of the mess of his own making by himself, striking out the side to end the threat.
Plymouth threatened again in the seventh, Grady Metzger and Preston Wolfe drawing walks from Johns, but once again the Caveman righty was able to wiggle out of it, but not without trouble.
With two out and the bases loaded, Nick Manzuk was called safe on a hotly disputed call at first base. The hit scored scored Preston Wolfe and Ethan Hall, and instead of calling a timeout, the Cavemen decided to argue with the umpires, and Drake Feece took advantage of the confusion to never stop running and score from first base while the argument went on.
“When I saw him go, I thought ‘he’d better make it,'” said Wolfe with a smile. “He made it.”
That would be it, as Johns was able to work a pop-up from Trey Delp to end the inning.
Plymouth starter Nick Manzuk sailed through the first two before hitting a snag in the third. Preston Wolfe came on after the Nowacki home run to finish the game, striking out seven, walking two, and giving up just four hits.
“You have to win the close ones, you have to win the home ones,” said Wolfe. “You have to play everyone twice (in NLC round robin play), and you want to get off to a good start in the first round. This is a tough one to swallow, but it’s on to Concord and we have to play a little bit better.”
Plymouth (4-5, 0-1) will take on Concord at Bill Nixon Field on Wednesday.
MAX 98.3 will have the call on that game, former Plymouth head coach Tony Plothow will join Rusty Nixon for the broadcast starting around 5 p.m.
•MISHAWAKA 8, PLYMOUTH 7
at Bill Nixon Field
Mishawaka 0 0 5 0 0 1 2 8—6—0
Plymouth 1 2 0 0 0 0 4 7—7—4
WP — Handley. LP — Manzuk (0-1). S — Johns. HR — Nowacki (M). 2B — Ginter (M), Preston Wolfe (P), Manzuk (P).
