PLYMOUTH – It was a second night of struggles at the plate as Plymouth’s Pilgrims dropped their second straight NLC decision, this time 2-0 to Warsaw at Bill Nixon Field.
“We’re not hanging our hat on anything the past couple of days,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Wolfe. “We’ve been in position to win the past two nights we just haven’t done it. We know we’re a good team we know it’s going to turn around, and we’re just going to work to fix the things we need to and get better.”
For the second straight game it was a pitchers duel with Plymouth’s Brayden Davidson matching up with Warsaw right hander Jordan Jones in a pitch for pitch battle. After throwing over 100 pitches in a win at Elkhart Memorial on Monday, Davidson was masterful and economical throwing just 81 pitches striking out two and walking two.
Jones was even better giving up just two Plymouth hits on the night – a double to Caleb Mikesell and a single to Dyllon Pavey – and allowing only two Plymouth base runners in scoring position all night. The Pilgrims left just four on base all night.
“We just really didn’t really come to play at the plate the last couple nights,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Wolfe. “Wednesday I thought we made some adjustments late, I don’t think we made any adjustments tonight. I thought we would do a little better.
“Both pitchers (Wednesday at Concord and Friday against Warsaw) were really similar in styles and speed and we didn’t make very good adjustments. We put some balls in play and they made some plays they needed to make. A lot of ground balls tonight.”
And an uncharacteristic number of Plymouth errors that cost one run on the night.
The baffling question for the Pilgrims is the sudden lack of offense from a team that looked so good in the season’s first six games.
“You take the first six games of the year you didn’t feel you could get us out,” said Wolfe. “We didn’t really change a whole lot. I don’t know. It’s one of those things that is weird with everybody being in a slump at once. We’ll work our way out of it. We’ll get back at it tomorrow (at LaPorte).”
One thing that has been stellar in the first eight games is the pitching staff.
“Our pitching has been fantastic,” said Wolfe. “Brayden did another great job tonight. Anytime that you can hold somebody to two runs in the NLC you feel like you’ve got a great chance to win that game.
“We’re going to continue to move on and get better. Those are the things that we just have to keep making adjustments on.”
Plymouth is 5-3 (1-2) with a road game at LaPorte on Saturday. Warsaw is 4-3 (2-1).
Linescore
Warsaw 0 0 1 0 1 0 0 2-5-0
Plymouth 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-2-3
WP – Jordan Jones. LP – Brayden Davidson (3-1). 2B – Caleb Mikesell (P), Collin Marshall (W).
