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By Dee Grenert
Sports Editor
PLYMOUTH — Hot-hitting Ryne Sweeney’s spot in the batting order rolled around at the perfect time for Plymouth American Legion Post 27 Monday.
With a double and infield single already under his belt, he capped off his big night with a one-out walkoff RBI single in the bottom of the ninth to lead Post 27 to a 5-4 come-from-behind win over Logansport Post 60 at Bill Nixon Field.
“With a runner on third, I was trying to hit the ball hard and hopefully get it through the infield,” Sweeney said. “I got a fastball down the middle, and I hit the ball well. I was seeing the ball well tonight.”
Post 27, which never led until Sweeney’s game-ending hit, opened the ninth with Mitch Bowers’ double into the left-center field gap. Catcher Mo Weddington then bunted pinch-runner Jake Bloom to third, bringing up Sweeney.
“Ryne swung the bat well tonight,” Post 27 head coach Tony Plothow said. “I was glad (Post 60) pitched to him. I thought they might intentionally walk him in that situation, but they decided to go at him.”
And Sweeney, a recent Oregon-Davis grad, made Logansport pay. With the infield drawn in, Sweeney clubbed a hard grounder that shot past shortstop Jeff Marschand into left field to score Bloom.
“It was so much easier having a runner at third,” Sweeney said. “Mo’s bunt was absolutely huge.”
While Sweeney and Bowers, who combined for five of Plymouth’s seven base knocks, powered the offense, relievers Brett Houlihan and Jay Badell put Post 27 in a position to recover from an early deficit. Houlihan, a stocky southpaw from Triton, threw 3 1-3 scoreless innings in relief of teammate Dustin Kreft, while Badell earned the win, striking out four Post 27 batters in two scoreless innings.
“Brett and Jay gave us a chance,” Plothow said. “Brett came in and settled us down. He threw three or four good innings. Then Jay kept it tied and gave us a chance to win in the ninth.”
Badell extracted himself from quite a mess in the top of the ninth, immediately after Post 27 had pulled even with a pair of runs in the bottom of the eighth.
Marschand drew a four-pitch leadoff walk, and Badell then beaned Grant McCloskey on an 0-2 pitch to put runners at first and second with nobody gone.
“That seemed to be the story of my pitching during the varsity season,” Badell said of the jam. “I’ve got to get the adrenaline going, then bear down and get the outs.”
Badell induced a 4-6 fielder’s choice to cut down McCloskey at second for the first out, and got Ethan Zartman to pop out to second baseman Jared Rhodes in shallow right. Marschand bluffed a tag and Rhodes slung a somewhat off-balanced throw to the plate that Weddington gloved nicely on a short hop to keep Marschand anchored 90 feet from the plate.
That set up a confrontation between Badell and Luke Zinsmaster, who already had three hits and three RBI. The Plymouth right-hander worked ahead in the count and struck Zinsmaster out swinging on a low ball. Badell said his opponent’s big night never entered his mind.
“I threw him a curveball and cutter, I threw him a couple of those,” Badell said. “I wasn’t thinking about anything else other than getting out the batter.
“My fastball was working tonight,” he added. “I had to reach back a couple of times and really throw.”
Post 27 tied the game with a pair of runs on two hits in the eighth inning. Sweeney nubbed a leadoff infield single down the third base line and moved to second when pinch-hitter Steve Cornett reached on an error. Nate Wottring’s bunt single loaded the bases with nobody out. Third baseman Brody Solmos then drew an RBI walk to bring home Sweeney and chase Post 60 starter Ryne Stover from the mound.
Chase Byerly’s sacrifice fly to right field plated Cornett with the game-tying run, but Post 60 reliever Matt Turnpaugh recorded a strikeout and pop up to keep the game even.
Prior to the eighth inning, Plymouth struggled to get anything going against Stover, who kept Post 27 off balance with an effective mix of fastballs, off-speed offerings and breaking balls, although he appeared to tip his pitches with the changing speed of his arm motion.
In fact, Post 27’s runs in the second and seventh — courtesy of RBI groundouts from Bowers and Joel Solis respectively — were both unearned.
“We got out on the front foot, and it seemed like we had a lot of fly outs,” Plothow said. “Even though (Stover) might have been tipping his pitches, we couldn’t put two or three hits together. We weren’t patient enough. I thought Mitch had the right idea when he went the other way for a hit. We needed to be sitting back and waiting.”
Things looked grim early for the home team as Post 60 struck for three runs in the top of the first.
Marschand scored on a passed ball and Zinsmaster cranked a two-run double to right field.
Zinsmaster added another RBI double to right in the third inning that scored Zartman, who reached on a catchable pop fly that dropped for a double in shallow left field.
Post 27, which split a doubleheader Sunday, now gets ready for a weekend trip to St. Louis.
“I think we got off to a slow start tonight,” Plothow said. “We had that bloop double drop. I just don’t think we were focused, but this is something we can build on going to St. Louis. We still have areas where we need to improve. Two days in a row now we’re talking about sneaking out wins. I’d much rather be on this side. We’re keeping our heads above water.”
• PLYMOUTH POST 27 5,
LOGANSPORT POST 60 4
At Plymouth
P 60: 3 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 — 4 11 4
P 27: 0 1 0 0 0 0 1 2 1 — 5 7 1
Ryne Stover, Matt Turnpaugh (8, L) and Grant McCloskey; Dustin Kreft, Brett Houlihan (4), Jay Badell (8, W) and Cody Bucher, Mo Weddington (6).
2B: McCloskey (Post 60), Ethan Zartman (Post 60), Luke Zinsmaster 2 (Post 60), Ryne Sweeney (Post 27), Mitch Bowers (Post 27).
Record: Post 27 6-4.
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