SYRACUSE — A game that was in question for five innings turned into a run away for Plymouth’s Pilgrims as they defeated Wawasee on the road by an 11-2 final.
“Chuy (Jesus Luva) pitched great, he was right around the plate all night and to hit the ball like that and execute a lot of things was great,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Wolfe. “At practice last night we worked on a lot of those things. We worked on bunting, we worked on those things we needed to execute and we executed pretty much everything we wanted to tonight.”
And Plymouth did little wrong in a must win NLC game.
The game was in doubt all the way to the fifth in a pitchers duel between Wawasee’s Kameron Salazar and Plymouth’s Jesus Luva, with Luva taking a no hitter into the fifth inning.
Plymouth was able to plate a run in the first on Cole Filson’s double and another in the fourth on a Matt Dobuck solo homer. The Warriors answered with one of their own getting to Luva for three straight hits in the fifth, but Plymouth answered with three of their own in the top of the sixth and put it away with a six run seventh.
“His (Luva) curve ball was getting over and his last two starts that’s something that he’s struggled with is the feel on that curve ball,” said Wolfe. “He found it there, especially late in the game and he was right around with his fastball. His first couple of starts he was up with that pitch. There were times tonight when he was up but mostly he was down in the zone and he just did an excellent job.”
Salazar was just as good for most of the game striking out four and scattering five hits through five innings but ran out of gas in the sixth.
“I was starting to worry a little bit when we got to the fifth inning and their starting pitcher was still out there,” said Wolfe. “That’s what happened the last time is we let them hang in there by not being able to extend the lead. We were really just hoping for a couple there but to break it open like that was a good thing.”
It puts the Pilgrims on a high note to end the week with one more non-conference game Saturday night against New Prairie, and then back to the NLC grind on Monday at NorthWood.
“After a long week, getting on the bus and coming all the way to Wawasee, quite frankly this is a tough place to play,” said Wolfe. “This is a tough place to hit with the high sky and the white water tower in center. It makes a lot of things tough on a hitter and I thought we got some really good swings tonight.”
Cole Filson liked what he saw at the plate with a pair of doubles and a triple along with three RBIs. Luva had three RBIs as well in his own cause.
The Pilgrims are now 8-4 in the NLC and 13-7 overall with New Prairie tonight at Bill Nixon Field with a game time of 6:30 p.m.
•PLYMOUTH 11, WAWASEE 2
at Wawasee
Plymouth 1 0 0 1 0 3 6 11-15-1
Wawasee 0 0 0 0 1 1 0 2-6-2
WP – Luva. LP – Salazar. HR – Dobuck (P). 3B – Filson (P). 2B – Filson 2 (P), Garza (W).
