PLYMOUTH – It was far from a thing of beauty but it was a win and Plymouth’s Pilgrims will take it surviving Wawasee at Bill Nixon Field by a final of 4-3.

Five Plymouth errors and some outstanding pitching from Wawasee starter Rieder Hunley had the Pilgrims on the ropes in the sixth 3-0. It was once again a Plymouth starting pitcher – this time Cam Eveland – who was the hero on the mound and at the plate, ripping a double to push across the first Plymouth run that would open up the floodgate for four in the sixth that would be the difference.

“It has to be frustrating for them, they played well enough to win the game and I thought their pitcher did a fantastic job,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Wolfe. “We just didn’t make any adjustments. I was not real happy with our guys and their approaches at the plate because we went up there still trying to pull the ball. Give our guys credit they finally did make some adjustments in the sixth inning. Any time you escape one of those games with a win it’s a plus.”

Hunley baffled the Plymouth bats with a mixture of pitches painting the outside corner for six innings. In that frame George Stults, and Dyllon Pavey led off with singles and Wawasee boss Brock Doty chose to bring on reliever Jacob Garza who had baffled the Pilgrims in their previous meeting at Wawasee. This time Cam Eveland greeted the right hander with a double run scoring double, Caleb Mikesell had a run scoring single and Braydon Davidson followed with a two run single that would be the difference.

Meanwhile Eveland was having an outstanding night in his return to the mound, striking out seven surrendering just four hits and one earned run, finally taking the win.

“He (Eveland) battled out there and that’s tough to do when your defense doesn’t play the way they have in the past behind you and you have to fight through some things,” said Wolfe. “You have to have a short term memory, wipe it away and throw the next pitch and I thought he did an outstanding job of that.”

The other Pilgrims did a good job of short term memory as well, in an uncharacteristically sloppy five error display, recovering to put it behind them and play their normal game for the game’s final three innings.

“This game is brutal sometimes and your going to come up in a big spot where your going to have to forget those things and that’s really hard to do,” said Wolfe. “We continue to preach it and talk about it but our guys were getting frustrated in the dugout, you could see it. It’s about bearing down and doing the things that you know how to do. In the sixth we did that.”

The win sets up a big matchup on Monday at NorthWood as the Pilgrims travel to Nappanee to play the first place Panthers with a chance to control their own destiny as far as the conference title is concerned.

“This makes Monday a big game,” said Wolfe. “We go to NorthWood on Monday and it’s what makes this time of year fun when you’re playing in games that mean something.”

Linescore

Wawasee 1 0 2 0 0 0 0 3-4-0

Plymouth 0 0 0 0 0 4 x 4-9-5

WP – Eveland (2-0). LP – Garza. 2B – Dennie 2 (P), Eveland (P), Slabaugh (W).