The Pilot News - Pilgrims cash in on Wawasee mistakes

“You make your own luck,” Plymouth head coach Ed Kelso said. “We told them after the game that each time (Wawasee) made a mistake, we took advantage of it. If somebody opens the door, you’d better take advantage of it.
“We got above .500 which is a great thing,” Kelso said. “We’ve won three in a row this week. Hopefully we can continue that. It’s definitely more fun when you’re winning.”
Plymouth pitcher Ashleah Wheat went the distance, giving up two runs — one earned — on four hits. She struck out three and walked just one Wawasee batter. One of those strikeouts came with runners on first and second with two outs in the sixth. After falling behind 3-0 to clean-up hitter Jonna Wiggs, Wheat delivered three straight good ones and got Wiggs looking to end the threat.
The sophomore righty retired the first nine batters she faced, and then worked around leadoff singles in both the fourth and fifth innings.
“My gosh, what can you say about Wheat?” Kelso said. “She’s doing the job. She only walked one. She can’t do anything more than she’s doing. She’s keeping us in the game, until our bats come around. Isn’t that the way it’s supposed to be? Pitching’s the name of the game.”
Wawasee freshman Aubrey Mroz threw a decent game herself. She held Plymouth to five hits — including a pair of singles by catcher Jessica Centa — and allowed only one earned run.
“She’s done a nice job all year long,” Wawasee head coach Cory Schutz said. “She threw harder tonight than she has all week.”
That one earned run came in the seventh. Tremaine reached safely on a fielder’s choice grounder that erased Riley Repp, who rapped a one-out infield single off Mroz’s glove. Byelick then lifted a fly ball that left fielder Shelby Newhard and center fielder Wiggs converged upon, but neither called. The ball fell between the fielders and rolled far enough away to allow Tremaine to chug home, all the way from first.
“We played better defensively today than we did yesterday, but we had a few little mistakes cost us with two outs,” Schutz said. “It’s hard to keep a team from scoring when you give them extra outs.”
In fact, the Pilgrims inflicted most of their damage with two outs.
In the third inning, Byelick reached on a two-out error, followed by Centa’s bloop single to center that popped out of Wiggs’ glove as she attempted a sliding grab. Byelick then scored on Lyzz Smith’s hard grounder through the left side of the infield for a 1-0 Plymouth lead.
Centa led off the sixth with a solid single up the gut, and motored all the way to third when the ball scooted under Wiggs’ glove. Olivia Keilman knocked in Centa with a shallow sacrifice fly to left for a 2-0 Plymouth lead.
Keilman also played a sparkling shortstop, capped off by a fifth-inning ending highlight-reel worthy backhand stab and toss to Smith at first that saved a run.
“(Keilman) did a real nice job, very nice job in the field,” Kelso said. “She did a good job putting the bat on the ball, too.”
Wawasee, which left runners in scoring position in three straight innings, pushed across a pair of runs in the seventh. Ashley Sharp collected a one-out single and scored one batter later on Newhard’s triple to center on the eighth pitch of the at-bat. She scored when Mroz reached base on a two-out low liner that hit off Plymouth second baseman Stacy Vervynckt’s glove.
“We didn’t get the key hits when we needed them, until the seventh inning,” Schutz said. “We were a little sluggish. We’ve got to get our bats going earlier in the game.”
Plymouth heads to NorthWood Friday.
• PLYMOUTH 3,
WAWASEE 2
At Plymouth
Wawasee: 0 0 0 0 0 0 2 — 2 4 2
Plymouth: 0 0 1 0 0 1 1 — 3 5 2
Aubrey Mroz (L) and Angie Beer; Ashleah Wheat (W) and Jessica Centa.
2B: Mary Byelick (P).
3B: Shelby Newhard (W).
Records: Wawasee 7-7 (1-4 NLC), Plymouth 6-5 (2-3 NLC).