PLYMOUTH — Plymouth’s Pilgrims might have been feeling another come from behind win but Concord would have none of it taking home a 10-2 NLC victory.
It was a pitchers duel through six with the Pilgrims trailing by one at 3-2. Concord starter Dalton Swinehart had a masterful night with a complete-game win, with 11 strikeouts, no walks, and only four hits.
Plymouth starter Matt Dobuck matched him for six with seven strikeouts of his own.
Concord would rise up for seven in the top of the seventh inning off of the Plymouth bullpen. The Pilgrims would do little to help their own cause walking five hitters in the inning and committing a pair of errors.
“As you look at who they threw (Swinehart), and you figure that it is going to be a close game,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Wolfe. “It just snowballed on us there we couldn’t find the plate. Cam (Shively) wasn’t feeling it, he was having some arm trouble. Somebody is going to look at that score but overall we really did a lot of good things.”
One of them was Dobuck’s solid start on the mound.
“Matt pitched well, was around the zone, the only reason we took him out was that his pitch count was at 114,” said Wolfe. “He was deep in counts and he does that sometimes. I think that he pitched really well.”
Dobuck was making big pitches and helping himself by picking off four Minuteman runners at first base. Swinehart was a contrast, pounding the zone for most of the game and being ahead in the count.
“He was 0-2 on so many hitters,” said Wolfe. “He pounded the zone and that’s something we knew that he would do. We told our guys to swing early in counts early in the game, we had some good at-bats. We hit some balls hard early in the count and didn’t let him get up 0-2.”
Swinehart would not allow a hit from the fourth inning on, striking out nine of the last 11 hitters he faced.
After falling behind Plymouth would come back in the third to push across a pair of runs to tie.
“Second time through lineup we were able to get to him and get a couple runs across,” said Wolfe. “But you looked at the first three runs that we gave up — and error, a passed ball — that we would probably reflect on as things we need to shore up.”
“That’s what the conference is like,” he said. “We are going to see pitchers like that. We are going to have to battle for seven innings. It will be a 4-2, 5-3 ballgame where we need to find ways to keep grinding and clawing.”
Nathan Schoenherr had a big night for Concord with a pair of triples driving home three runs.
Ivan Winkle and Bradey Pittman had the Plymouth RBIs in the third inning.
Plymouth again committed some costly miscues with five more errors in the game following 10 in a Monday win.
“A few of those Monday you can kind of throw out because of the conditions,” said Wolfe. “I don’t think it’s something that we really need to panic about right now but it is definitely something that we will address.”
“Overall I thought 90 percent of the game was a really well-played game for both teams,” he said. “It’s just really unfortunate we didn’t have a shot in that seventh inning.”
Plymouth takes their first NLC loss to move to 1-1, and is 4-3 overall. Concord is also now 4-3.
•CONCORD 10, PLYMOUTH 2
at Bill Nixon Field.
Concord 0 1 1 1 0 0 7 10-7-0
Plymouth 0 0 2 0 0 0 0 2-4-5
WP — Swinehart. LP — Dobuck (2-1). 3B — Schoenherr (C) 2. 2B — Kain (C), Starrett (C).
