PLYMOUTH — It would have been hard to pick a better way to head into the sectional for the Plymouth Pilgrims, as they came alive on senior night at Bill Nixon Field for a 10-2 win over Knox.
Senior Grant Stukenborg had a very big for the Pilgrims, pitching six innings of two-hit baseball, striking out nine and running his record to 5-0 on the year. Senior Nate Nixon was called in the seventh to seal the win with a couple of strikeouts.
Knox’s Cole Bridgroom was the only Redskins hitter to figure the Plymouth right hander out with a pair of doubles, an RBI, a stolen base and a run scored in the game.
“You get Stuke out there on the mound again and send these seniors off the way they should go out,” said Plymouth coach Ryan Wolfe. “He’s a kid that’s 5 and 0 on the season. He beat Penn earlier in the year. All winter he’s been a great leader; really all our seniors have.
“You look at our five seniors — some of them played more than others — but the kind of kids they are. They are going to be great people, have great careers. These are five fantastic young men that once they get motivate — and doing something they enjoy doing — they are going to be great husbands, great fathers and it’s fantastic to see them succeed on the baseball field as well being great young men.”
Not only did Stukenborg pitch his way to a win, he helped his own cause blasting a two-run homer in the fifth inning to take the Pilgrims to an 8-2 lead. Stukenborg was just following suit as junior Jeremy Drudge came out of a slump in a big way with a two-out two-run shot in the first inning, adding a third RBI with a deep sacrifice fly to center in the third inning.
Not to be out done, Ezra Winkle hit a two-run shot of his own in the sixth capping the Plymouth scoring.
“We had some great at bats,” Wolfe said, “we hit the ball hard, obviously it was carrying out tonight. We’re a deep line up. We can hit the ball the way we did on any given night. I was glad to see it tonight.”
Particularly pleasing for Plymouth fans was Drudge’s night that showed signs of what he is capable of in the middle of the Pilgrims lineup.
“For a guy like Jeremy Drudge — even the swings he was out on — he was middle away,” said Wolfe. “It’s what’s been tough about our situation. We don’t have any magic words or anything. We tried some different things (with Drudge) and it’s kind of on him to make some adjustments. It’s been hard on him he’s been working hard. He’s walked a ton this year because guys don’t want to pitch to him. Those were great swings tonight. Those will be huge moving forward.”
It was also a fitting final regular season game for Wolfe’s senior class.
“We’ve had some stretches here — overall on our roster we’re pretty young — and we’ve had to figure out some things, and fight through some things,” said Wolfe. “Maybe growing up a little and figuring out how to handle losing, how to fail in this game and not let it eat you up. I challenged them (seniors) to get us back to where we needed to be and they’ve done a great job of staying the course.”
The win is also important for a team that has had a roller coaster ride of a season to start back up at a crucial time. Plymouth will open the sectional Thursday night against South Bend Adams at Bill Nixon Field at 8 p.m.
“We reset at zero, zero and start over,” said Wolfe. “We’re going to have a good couple of practices here the next couple of days and I can’t wait until Thursday when we get back out here.”
Plymouth ends the regular season with a record of 13-13. Knox finishes at 8-18.
•Plymouth 10, Knox 2
Knox 1 0 0 1 0 0 0 2-3-1
Plymouth 2 0 1. 3 2 2. x. 10-11-1
WP – Grant Stukenborg. LP – Sean Trojan. HR – Jeremy Drudge (P), Grant Stukenborg (P), Ezra Winkle (P). 2B – Cam Dennie (P), Dyllon Pavey (P), Cole Bridgroom 2 (K).
