Plymouth drops NLC battle with Northridge
PLYMOUTH — Plymouth’s Pilgrims hung around but couldn’t get over a three-run first inning by Northridge, taking an 8-4 loss on Monday.
The Raiders were able to use pressure on the bases and some key hits to grab a 3-0 lead in the first and never looked back. The Pilgrims came back and posted four of their own in the fourth off Northridge left-hander Braxton Nagy to cut it to 6-4, put a pair of runners on in the seventh with no outs, but couldn’t get any closer.
“They were able to get a couple late, and it’s a whole different ballgame if we’re only down two with two guys on,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Wolfe. “I thought the way we started ‘oh, no, here we go, we’re going to have to figure it out’ and we did. Give credit to our eight and nine guys (in the batting order), Dom (Vasquez) and Grady (Metsker). Grady had a great night at the plate.”
MAX 98.3’s Marian University Ancilla College Player of the game, had a pair of hits for the Pilgrims and made several outstanding plays in left defensively.
Plymouth starter Nick Manzuk had a shaky start but recovered to go late in the game and kept his team in position to come back for a win. Vasquez, who has been lights out in relief over the past week, came in for the final two innings.
“I thought Nick did a good job settling in there and had a couple of good innings to keep us in,” said Wolfe. “I thought Dom was probably a little tired, but we made a game of it late, and we wanted to go to him to keep it close there.”
“We did a lot of good things,” he said. “We continue to build, and Warsaw beat Mishawaka; everybody is still bunched at the top. We get to go to Northridge again at the end of the season, and we’ll be ready to go.”
Plymouth is 8-8 and 4-3 in NLC action. They play CMA tonight at Bill Nixon Field and then travel to Mishawaka on Wednesday for key NLC matchup.
•NORTHRIDGE 8, PLYMOUTH 4
at Bill Nixon Field
Northridge 3 0 3 0 0 1 1 8—10—0
Plymouth 0 0 0 4 0 0 0 4—7—2
WP: Braxton Nagy, LP: Nick Manzuk. 2B — Luke Mann (N), Parker Wolfe (P),
Ethan Hall (P).
