Plymouth survives South Central comeback bid
PLYMOUTH — It looked like it might be a walk in the park early, but it turned into a battle for survival as Plymouth hung on for an 11-7 win over visiting South Central at Bill Nixon Field on Wednesday night.
Plymouth scored six runs in the first before an out was recorded by the South Central Satellites with Plymouth starter Preston Wolfe sailing through three innings. South Central struck back in the fourth and fifth tying the game, but couldn’t hold off the Plymouth offense in taking the loss.
“Those are the kind of games we’re going to play over the next five weeks, kind of scrape and claw,” said Plymouth coach Ryan Wolfe.
Wolfe struck out six in four innings of work, but in the fourth a big double by pinch-hitter Billy Byrd and some help from a sketchy Plymouth defense gave the Satellites life with a five-run inning.
From there sophomore Nick Manzuk came on and while South Central was able to tie it in the fifth, Manzuk found something and shut down the Satellites for the sixth and seventh to record his first varsity win on the mound.
“Nick came in and did a really good job there,” said Wolfe. “It’s kind of the role that we started out with for him, but he may work himself into a starting role. He’s kind of been that guy to come in for an inning here and an inning there and he gave us three solid innings tonight. Preston’s pitch count got up there (89) and we made some bonehead plays in the fourth inning.”
The fifth was one the Pilgrims wouldn’t put in the highlight reel as multiple chances to get out of trouble with minimal damage turned into disaster.
“That one inning we gave them about seven outs,” said Wolfe. “We had a couple of guys picked off, a rundown, we have to make those plays to just throw and catch the ball. Credit to our guys. We hung in there and did the work.”
Meanwhile, the Plymouth bats continued to keep on the pressure and finally forced some of the same errors from South Central in the sixth leading to the three runs that would clinch the victory.
“One through nine we had some good at-bats,” said Wolfe. “Trey Jordan came in there and got a big RBI on a pinch-hit (giving the Pilgrims the lead back at 8-7) and that’s what it’s about. Stringing together some hits, putting up some crooked numbers,
“Those are the kind of games we’re going to play over the next five weeks, kind of scrape and claw.”
Plymouth head coach Ryan Wolfe