SOUTH BEND – Plymouth couldn’t have asked more from starting pitcher Tim Tremaine but the Pilgrims couldn’t help their starter as he took a tough loss to South Bend St. Joe at Frank Eck stadium at Notre Dame 1-0.
Illness and injury made Tremaine the surprise starter and he responded by surrendering just one fourth inning run to the defending state champion and preseason number one ranked Indians, scattering five hits striking out three and not walking a batter.
“Timmy even exceeded what I thought he could give us tonight, he did a fantastic job,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Wolfe. “We hoped he’d be able to give us five innings tonight and when we got to the fifth and he only had 42 pitches it was amazing. Anytime you can throw all three pitches for a strike good things happen. I thought coach (Brent) Corbett called a great game, they had them out in front and off stride all night.”
The only run in the game came in the St. Joe fourth when Indian starting pitcher Alex Voss hit a two out double and courtesy runner Noah Hickey scored on Kerry Zeese’s two out single. A great throw from Thomas Dolan on a Nick Dolniak single cut down the second run at the plate to end the inning. St. Joe managed just one more hit in the game.
“We played pretty solid defensively tonight,” said Wolfe. “Our outfield especially did a great job getting reads and chasing down some balls in a really big ball park. You take out (Cole) Filson who started in left last year and the guys we have out there have a combined six games varsity experience. They’ve been really solid.”
Center fielder Jacob Deacon also had the Pilgrims first hit and left fielder Dolan led off the Pilgrims seventh with a single. Catcher Jackson Lee had the other two Pilgrim hits on the night.
Plymouth had opportunities with runners in scoring position in the third, fifth and seventh inning but couldn’t get a two out hit to score. The best opportunity came in the final frame when Dolan singled to lead off the inning move to third on a Jackson Lee single and a two out walk to Jesus Luva loaded the bases. St. Joe reliever Joe Rotkis got Benji Nixon to strike out to end the threat and the game.
“We’ve pitched well so far but we have to put together a complete game and find a way to score some runs,” said Wolfe. “Maybe we need to be a little more aggressive with two strikes, I don’t know. We just have to find a way to scratch out some runs.”
“I think we’ve proven we’re a good ball club, we just have to put it all together.”
Plymouth is 0-2 with a game Tuesday night at Bill Nixon Field against Rochester.
•ST. JOE 1, PLYMOUTH 0
At Eck Stadium
St. Joe 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 1-5-0
Plymouth 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0-4-2
WP – Alex Voss. S – Joe Rotkis. LP – Tim Tremaine (0-1). 2B – Nick Dolniak (SJ), Voss (SJ).
