Mishawaka takes come-from-behind NLC win over Pilgrims
MISHAWAKA — It was a rough day for the defense as Plymouth got off on the wrong foot in an NLC opening night road loss to Mishawaka 6-3.
The Pilgrims spotted the Cavemen an unearned run in the first and went on to give them three more unearned runs in the game as four Plymouth errors would be the undoing of the Pilgrims.
“You can’t give any NLC team outs or they will take advantage of it,” said Plymouth head coach Preston Wolfe. “I think he (Plymouth starting pitcher Preston Wolfe) looked a lot better today than he did in his previous two starts. He was right around the plate. We just have to make and execute some plays. We gave them too many free bases.”
Wolfe went the distance striking out four and walking two giving up seven hits and two earned runs in taking the loss.
Meanwhile, after a rough start, Mishawaka lefty Trey Debroka would have a rocky first couple but recover to go six innings in getting the win.
Debroka weathered a tough second inning but got out of a bases-loaded jam giving up just two runs and gave up another in the fifth on an RBI single by Ethan Hall which looked like it might be enough to give the Pilgrims a win.
In the bottom half of the inning, a lead-off walk and a pair of Plymouth errors handed the Cavemen three runs and the lead they would never relinquish.
“We kind of let him (Debroka) in the ball game,” said Wolfe. “We needed to knock him out early. He kind of settled in there in the third, fourth, and fifth innings. It was one of those where you get a guy up to 70 pitches in the first three innings you want to go ahead and knock him out of there. Then he was able to manage through the sixth inning. You just have to take advantage of the things that they gave us. We had the bases loaded there (in the second) and could have had a couple more and broken it open.”
“I thought we hit some balls hard. I thought we made some adjustments. He’s a guy that beat us last year and we hit him a lot better today than last year.”
Plymouth could get just two hits after the second, a double in the third by Kaden Milliser and a run scoring single in the fifth by Ethan Hall.
Plymouth moves to 4-3 (0-1) on the year, Mishawaka is now 3-2 (1-0).
•MISHAWAKA 6, PLYMOUTH 3 at Mishawaka
Plymouth 0 2 0 0 1 0 0 3-4-4
Mishawaka 1 0 0 1 3 1 x 6-7-1
WP — Debroker (1-0). LP — Preston Wolfe (1-1). 3B — Nowacki (M). 2B — Milliser (P), Jordan (P), Debroka (M), Pritchett (M), Thomas (M).