The Pilot News - Panthers’ pitching too much for Plymouth

“It would have been a good ball game if we’d have had a couple people show up and mentally be in the game with us,” said Plymouth baseball head coach Tony Plothow. “You come over here and you play a team that’s just starting to play a little bit better, and we get (one) hit. We didn’t deserve to win this game. We didn’t get the pitching we needed, didn’t get the hitting we needed and made a mistake here or there that opened up the floodgates for us.”
Plymouth recorded just one hit during Monday’s NLC road contest. Elliott scored two of Plymouth’s four runs with two walks and a pair of steals. He also recorded the team’s lone hit, doubling in the top of the seventh frame, although he was ultimately left stranded.
In the Pilgrims’ first at-bat of the evening, Elliott worked Panther starter Derek Yoder back from an 0-2 count for a walk, then stole second and was moved to third when Kyle Thoden grounded out to second on the next at-bat. Elliott drew first blood in the game as Plymouth starting pitcher Damon Howe swatted a hard chopper to second base and NorthWood left-handed second baseman Aric Armington — who recorded two throwing errors at the game — botched the throw to first. Howe reached on the play, but Yoder closed the inning by fanning Jay Badell with three straight strikes.
Howe got a lot of mileage off his curve ball in the opening innings, and the Panthers struggled to adjust, going three up and down in the first two frames. The freshman pitched into the bottom of the sixth, recording four strikeouts and four walks while giving up four hits and three unearned runs.
Elliott got Howe out of trouble with a double play in the bottom of the first, as Howe walked NorthWood two-hole batter Dustin Bussard with one out. Bussard took off on a hit-and-run play on a high chopper by Titus to short, but Elliott wrangled control of the ball in time to get the put-out at second and throw Titus out at first to close the inning and maintain Plymouth’s 1-0 edge.
Elliott came through again to stretch the Pilgrims’ lead to 2-0 in the third with another walk and stolen base. He was advanced to third once more on a Thoden groundout to second, and Joel Solis took a base after being hit by a pitch, then stole second during Howe’s second at-bat of the evening. Howe got under one for a sacrifice fly to center, driving home Elliott. Neither Howe nor Solis scored as Badell went down looking for Plymouth’s final out of the frame.
“His on-base percentage has been great as a leadoff guy,” said Plothow of Elliott. “He works counts, he does a good job trying to get on base for us. Probably in another year he might be a three hitter for us and doing that kind of stuff, but he’s taken the challenge of being a leadoff hitter and done a great job working the count and getting on base. He was on another three times tonight, scored two of our runs. We’re just not getting it done from everybody else.”
The Panthers evened it up with a pair of two-out runs in the bottom of the third as Howe walked Armington, then gave up a hit to Yoder. Bussard lined one back to Howe, and he reached as the ball ricocheted off the freshman’s leg. Titus scored Armington and Bussard with a deep line drive to right-center, although Howe stayed calm to strike NorthWood’s clean-up batter out and retire the side without further damage.
The Pilgrims went down in order in the fourth, and the Panthers took their first lead of the game in the bottom of the inning, as shortstop Chaz Bellman ripped another double to right-center, was moved to third on a groundout back to the pitcher and scored on a passed ball to give the Panthers a 3-2 lead.
Both teams went down in order in the next inning before Plymouth struck again with two runs in the sixth.
Howe reached on a throwing error at second, and pinch-runner Solis stole second and was moved to third on the ensuing at-bat. Ryan Welch struck out to give the Pilgrims two outs, but Sam Faulstich drew a walk and recorded another Plymouth stolen base to put both him and Solis in scoring position. Sophomore left fielder Damon Allen connected on a 1-2 offering toward third, and he reached on the overthrow by Ryne Garner for the second time in the game, scoring Solis and Faulstich to put Plymouth up 4-3.
“He’s doing a good job, we brought him up as a sophomore,” said Plothow of Allen. “He was doing well on JV, and he’s given us some good, quality at-bats; he’s playing well defensively. We said this in the beginning of the year: We’re looking for an identity, and here we are game whatever, 20, and we’re still looking for somebody to step up in the outfield. He’s getting a shot, and he’s playing really well for us. I’m happy with his performance; I’m happy that he put the ball in play with two strikes. He’s doing better than some of the older kids right now.”
Howe gave up a single and a walk with no outs in the bottom of the sixth, and Badell was brought in to protect the lead. Badell got one out then gave up a walk to load the bases. NorthWood designated hitter Tyler Raber laid down a beautiful bunt, Garner was already halfway home from third, and he squeezed past catcher Cody Bucher for the tying run.
No one was covering first on the play, and Raber reached to load the bases once more with just one out. Batting ninth for the Panthers, Armington came up next, hitting a two-RBI stand-up double to left-center to put NorthWood ahead by two.
“We walk a guy and then we give up a couple plays to get him on third base, and then we just don’t handle it, don’t get an out after the squeeze play,” Plothow said. “It was a great play, great call. They handle it; we need to get an out on the play, and we didn’t do it and they get a couple more runs after that. That’s my fault as a coach... we’ve gone over all this stuff, but guys aren’t prepared mentally, so that goes back to the coaching staff. It was a great call.”
“The squeeze play was something we thought if we got the right situation we might look at,” said Panthers head coach Nick Davis. “We had Ryne Garner on third, he has good speed, and Tyler Raber at the plate, he’s one of our better bunters so we thought why not give it a shot. And then Bemiller came up with a big double, out of our nine-hole hitter. He put a good swing on the ball. He was aggressive, and when you’re aggressive good things happen. “
Davis moved southpaw Titus to the mound as the top of Plymouth’s order came up for the fourth time in the final frame.
After an initial double by Elliott, Titus recorded two straight strikeouts, and Howe grounded out to Titus to end the game.
Plymouth slides to 8-12, 4-7 in the NLC with Monday’s loss, while NorthWood improves to 5-11, 3-7 NLC. The Pilgrims host Culver Military in a non-conference game today at home.
• NORTHWOOD 6,
PLYMOUTH 4
At Nappanee
P: 1 0 1 0 0 2 0 — 4 1 2
N: 0 0 2 1 0 3 x — 6 6 4
Damon Howe, Jay Badell (6, L) and Cody Bucher. Derek Yoder (W), Skyler Titus (7) and John Sittler.
2B: Brandon Elliott (P), Chaz Bellman (NW), Aric Armington (NW), Titus.
Records: Plymouth 8-12, (4-7 NLC), NorthWood 5-11, (3-7 NLC).