GOSHEN — It was a rough night at the office for Plymouth as they couldn’t get much going in a road NLC loss at Goshen.
“Free bases. That’s all it comes down to,” said Plymouth coach Ryan Wolfe. “We are giving up too many free bases.”
This night it would be pitching as starter Skylar Aker was far from his sharpest walking four and hitting a batter in just two innings work. Matt Manzuk fared a little better but walked one and hit two batters.
Falling behind by three in the second inning Plymouth would answer but more struggles on the mound gave Goshen a five-spot in the third that would be all they would need.
“We did a great job of scoring three to answer their three and then we walk two and hit two,” said Wolfe. “You can’t do that. We walked the nine hitter with two out and the lead-off guy doubles.”
“We have to find a way to not give up free bases,” he said. “I know we had 12 — seven walks and three hit by pitches and a couple of errors.”
After two errors and a couple of walks led to three in the second for Goshen, Plymouth answered with three on a run-scoring double by Bradey Pittman and a two-run single by Cam Shively to tie in the third.
The wheels would come off in the fifth for Plymouth as the Red Hawks answered with five, the big blow a two-out three-run double by pitcher Reese Fisher that nearly left the park.
“We went very deep in counts,” said Wolfe. “We’d have guys 0-2 and end up in a full count. We have to find a way to find a way to put guys away. We don’t get a whole lot of swings and misses. We know what we need to do to get better we just have to get better.”
Once again the Pilgrims ran into a strong pitching performance by an opponent’s number one pitcher as Fisher was very hard to hit after the third. He struck out seven and walked just one before giving way to Thomas Castillo in the seventh.
“I think we should win with five runs. I think we can win with five runs,” said Wolfe. “We just have to find a way to get out of those innings and minimize the damage.”
“We have to get this bulldog mentality on the mound that I think that we lack right now,” said Wolfe. “Me versus you and I’m going to get you. I don’t know what it is.”
Seven of the 10 Goshen runs crossed the plate after two were out.
“Maybe we just have to go back to the drawing board and try to find some way to motivate the guys and help them understand what we are doing and how we are doing it,” said Wolfe. “It’s not just on them, it’s on us coaches too and we have to find a way to do better in terms of pitch selection and everything else.”
The Pilgrims have lost three in a row in conference play to stand at 1-3 and 4-5 overall. Goshen moves to 3-1 in NLC action and is 7-5 overall.
•GOSHEN 10, PLYMOUTH 5
at Goshen
Plymouth 0 0 3 0 1 0 0 5-10-3
Goshen 0 3 5 1 1 0 x 10-8-2
WP — Fisher (4-0). LP — Aker (0-3). 2B — Fisher (G), Pittman (P), Dobuck (P), Shively (P), Sheely (P).
