Another crazy Plymouth, Warsaw matchup goes to Tigers
PLYMOUTH — Barnum and Bailey would have been proud of the atmosphere at Bill Nixon Field on Friday as Plymouth and Warsaw squared off in what can only be called a wild ride with the Tigers taking an 18-6 win.
It started off with an offensive explosion with Warsaw beating up Plymouth starter Kaden Milliser with nine runs in the first inning the big blow was a towering grand slam home run over the road in dead center field by Warsaw catcher Cohen Heady. More on Heady later.
Not to be undone, Plymouth hitters responded with six runs of their own in the bottom half of the inning with a big hit in Ryan Jolly’s two-run single with two out.
“After that first inning I thought we were going
to be here until midnight,” said Plymouth head coach Ryan Wolfe. “We have to find a way to get out of some innings. They are a really
good ball club. From one to six, they can really swing it and we weren’t ready. I’ll take credit for that. We’ll get better. It’s not the last time Kaden
(Milliser) is going to be on the mound, it’s not the last time Bowls (reliever Caleb Bowling) is going to be on the mound. We just have to get better.”
In the Warsaw second things went strange.
Warsaw’s Heady came to the plate for the third time in the game and
time was called by the home plate umpire. The IHSAA two days ago had sent an email about the bat Heady brought to the plate, for the third time, that stated the handle material must be factory original or the bat was illegal to use. Heady had retaped his handle and for whatever reason
the IHSAA had ruled that would be illegal.
After a long delay, the decision was made to allow the bat, Heady tripled and then the umpire declared the bat illegal and removed it from the game, for whatever reason.
“They hit the ball. With the circus that was there at that point it was about my kids doing the things that we expect them to do,” said Wolfe.
“We didn’t play well,” he said. “We hit the ball. We came back. I think the number one thing is that we gave up nine and scored six. You credit our guys for not faltering, we went up there and swung the bat. We get to play them again after all that. We get to play them again.”
After the dust had cleared, it became a good baseball game with Plymouth allowing just two more Warsaw runs and Tiger pitcher Brandt Martin righting the ship and throwing a shutout the rest of the way.
Ryan Jolly came on to pitch three-and-twothirds innings surrendering just two runs.
“I think Ryan Jolly did a really good job,” said Wolfe. “I’m proud of him. It’s tough on anyone to come out there in
that situation.”
Plymouth (4-4) has no time to recover with a game today at Laporte with the first pitch
scheduled for noon. •WARSAW 18, PLYMOUTH 6 Warsaw 9 7 0 0 0 2 18—13—3 Plymouth 6 0 0 0 0 0 6-7-3 WP — Martin. LP — Milliser (1-1). HR — Heady (W). 3B — Heady (W). 2B — Nelson (W).