By James Costello Sports Writer
PLYMOUTH — The outcome came down to one inning Monday.
The Pilgrims went up 2-0 with runs in the opening two frames, and Plymouth’s defense held John Glenn scoreless for the opening three frames before sophomore hurler Tyler Shook suffered a temporary lapse in control for three Falcons runs in the top of the fourth. Shook and the Pilgrims recovered to shut Glenn down for the remainder of the game, as well, but they couldn’t push the tying run across despite a pair of opportunities in the final two innings. In the end, Glenn survived the first round of Plymouth Baseball Sectional play with the slimmest of 3-2 wins over the host Pilgrims on Memorial Day at Bill Nixon Field.

“That inning, and then we’re going home,” said Plymouth baseball head coach Tony Plothow. “That’s sort of our season in a nutshell right there. We’ve played some very good games this year, and we lost a lot of games because of one bad inning and here’s another one. You can’t do that in a big-time tournament in a one-and-done situation. We just didn’t get it done.”
“You win sectional games with good pitching, and we got that,” said Falcons head coach John Nadolny. “We played good defense, we got some timely hitting, whether it was a walk or whatever we made it happen.
“We looked like a baseball team today,” he added. “We finished the year losing eight of our last 10 and six in a row, and we weren’t feeling real good about ourselves. The one thing with our guys is it’s more psychological. We go into this, we put everything out, everybody’s 0-0. Now we’re 1-0, and they’re going home. That’s the thing — we tried to forget about what we’ve done and go out and do what needs to be done. We did it today, and I’m happy for our kids.”
Plymouth scored two runs off Glenn pitcher Michael Fansler in the first and second innings. Third baseman Joel Solis scored the Pilgrims’ opening run as second baseman Jay Badell moved him to third with the only double at a game featuring just nine total hits. Batting clean-up for Plymouth, freshman first baseman Damon Howe scored Solis with a single.
The Pilgrims wasted little time in the second inning as Cody Bucher drew a walk leading off for the team, designated hitter Ryan Welch moved him to second with a ground-out, and center fielder Kyle Thoden singled to push Bucher to third. Thoden was thrown out on the next at bat, however, as Elliott grounded into a double play at second, but Bucher capitalized on the play with another run for Plymouth to put the team up 2-0.
Glenn turned the tables as the Falcons broke through in the top of the fourth.
Leading off for Glenn, third baseman Jared Rhodes went ahead 2-0 on Shook, then took a pair of strikes to put the count at 2-2. Rhodes fouled off another couple to stay alive and outlasted Shook as the sophomore hit him with a  pitch. Brody Solmos and first baseman J.T. Schmidt then took back-to-back walks to load up the bags, and catcher Eric Bueno singled to right to put the Falcons on the board. Cody Shreve grounded into a fielder’s choice for the second Glenn out of the inning, but Solmos scored on the play at second, and Schmidt scored on a wild pitch into the backstop before Plymouth could close the inning.
“That was the bat of the game, Rhodes’ bat,” said Nadolny. “He went 2-0, brought it back 2-2, and then I think he fouled off three tough curve balls, and then he beaned him and that started the whole inning off. I’m telling you, that was the at-bat of the game, because he (Shook) had to work for the first time, then he had to throw it from the stretch and he got himself in trouble.”
Shook recovered nicely after the inning to give up just one Glenn hit, no walks and no outs in the remaining three frames to keep the game within reach. The Pilgrims had a couple opportunities in the sixth and seventh frames, but couldn’t find a timely hit.
Plymouth’s best opportunity to tie it up came in the sixth as right fielder Sam Faulstich singled to right, was moved to second on a sacrifice bunt by Nick Neidlinger, and took third on a passed ball with only one out. Bucher flew out to center, but Faulstich was unable to score after tagging up, and  Welch couldn’t beat out the throw from Solmos at short for the out at first to retire the side.
In the Pilgrims’ last chance to make something happen, Elliott singled with one out and the top of the Pilgrim order up in the bottom of the seventh.  Up next, Solis lined to second, but Cody Singleton made the catch a split-second before the ball hit the ground, throwing Elliott out at first for the double play after Elliott ran to second at the crack of Solis’ bat.
“It was low, and (Elliott) was in no-man’s land there,” said Plothow of the double play. “If he doesn’t go it’s a double play, if he goes it’s a double play. It’s just one of those things where we’ll say that’s baseball.”
The Falcons now move on to the Plymouth Sectional semifinals opposite Culver Military Academy Thursday at 7:30 p.m., after CMA topped Rochester in the nightcap Monday.
• JOHN GLENN 3,
  PLYMOUTH 2
Class 3A Sectional 19
At Plymouth
JG: 0 0 0   3 0 0       0 — 3  3  1
P:   1 1 0   0 0 0       0 — 2  6  1
Michael Fansler (W) and Eric Bueno; Tyler Shook (L) and Cody Bucher.
2B: Jay Badell (P).
Records: Plymouth 12-16.