PLYMOUTH - The upbeat song "Sweet Home, Chicago," pumped through the loudspeakers, but the baseball coach lecturing his players in right field after a 5-2 loss was in a sour mood.

Losing to Plymouth does that to Warsaw baseball coach Will Shepherd. Losing to Plymouth twice in a season, as the Tigers did this year, doubles the frustration.

Then there is the matter of the Northern Lakes Conference title.

Plymouth hosted and beat Warsaw 5-2 Monday. Plymouth improved to 14-3 overall and 7-0 in the NLC, while Warsaw fell to 11-5 overall and 5-2 in the NLC. Both of Warsaw's NLC losses have come to Plymouth, now in control of the conference.

Plymouth seeks its third straight NLC title and fourth in five years. Warsaw has finished second in the NLC the last three years. Last year Plymouth was 12-0 in the NLC, while Warsaw was 9-3.

"Our conference the last few years, they've clearly been the best team," Shepherd said of Plymouth, "and we've clearly been the second-best team. Everyone in our conference looks up at these guys."

Plymouth right-handed starter Eric Teall, now 4-0, held Warsaw to three hits and struck out nine in seven innings. The outing was his first in 10 days as he's been dealing with tendinitis in his throwing arm.

"He hadn't even thrown on the side for four days," Plymouth coach Tony Plothow said. "We had to shut him down for a while."

Teall received all the runs he needed in the first three innings.

After the Pilgrims scored single runs in the first and second innings, they strung together four straight two-out singles en route to a three-run third inning to take a 5-0 lead. Adam Foust, Nick Correll, Derek Birchmeier and Landon Lauber delivered the four consecutive singles off of Warsaw starter Michael Barger (3-2).

"I didn't think he changed speeds well enough," Shepherd said of Barger's troubles.

Warsaw helped Plymouth in the second and third innings. With one out and no one on in the second, Correll struck out but reached base on a passed ball by Warsaw catcher Josh Stork. The Pilgrims took advantage of the extra out as Correll scored later on a single by Charley Craig.

The Tigers again aided Plymouth in the third. With one out and Jon Slein on second, Blake Ruff struck out. Stork dropped the ball and had to throw Ruff out at first, which allowed Slein to move to third. With two outs, Plymouth then delivered its four consecutive singles.

"We can't win here giving them outs," Shepherd said. "There was a strikeout, and we can't block the ball, and the runner reaches first. It was little dinky things like that that hurt us."

Nate Milton doubled twice in four at-bats for two of Warsaw's three hits.

The Tigers had only three base runners through the first five innings before threatening in the sixth and seventh.

Trailing 5-0 in the sixth, Warsaw loaded the bases three times in the inning and scored two runs to cut it to 5-2. The lone hit in the inning? A lead-off double by Milton, who later scored on a fielder's choice by Jacob Wilson. Adam Augustine, who reached on a throwing error by shortstop Zach Scott, scored on a bases loaded walk to Geoff Walmer.

Teall appeared as if he would breeze through the seventh, retiring the first two hitters. But he then loaded the bases by walking two and hitting another, allowing the winning run in John Milton to reach the plate. But John Milton flied out to center field to end the game.

"Give credit to Teall, he was real aggressive," Shepherd said. "We had very few players challenge him. That's disappointing.

"Nate Milton, I have to say something about him. He came here to win a ballgame. His enthusiasm and hustle I appreciate."

The Tigers failed to capitalize at the end, just as they failed to do at the beginning. Nate Milton led off the game with a double to the left-center field gap and went to third on a wild pitch. Warsaw had no outs, but when the inning ended, Nate Milton still stood on third.

Now Plymouth stands alone at the top of the NLC.

"To be honest," Plothow said, "I thought Warsaw would win the conference this year since they had [senior pitchers] Augustine and Barger coming back. They graduated a lot of players, but we graduated 10 seniors, and all we play this year are

sophomores and juniors.

"We do control our destiny in the NLC, but we're one loss away from being in

a battle again for the conference. We have to go into Goshen on Wednesday. We had a tight game with them the first time, and Warsaw was losing to them [11-10 in a suspended game] the other night."

"The bottom line is, we take pitches and they don't," Shepherd said. "They had 15 hits the first time we played them, and they outhit us 9-3 tonight. That's why they lead the conference. Our kids hesitated. If they have a good pitch, they hit it.

"I just know if you want to win the conference, you have to beat them. We had our two opportunities. We didn't get it done. We're trying to close the gap on them. It's just frustrating when you don't make any headway."

PLYMOUTH 5, WARSAW 2

Warsaw ab r h rbi

N. Milton lf 4 1 2 0

Augustine rf 3 1 0 0

Barger p 2 0 0 0

Nycz p 0 0 0 0

Stogsdill cf 0 0 0 0

Wilson dh 3 0 0 1

J. Milton ss 4 0 0 0

Knepper 1b 2 0 0 0

Walmer 2b 2 0 0 1

DeGeeter 3b 2 0 0 0

Stork 3 0 1 0

Moore pr 0 0 0 0

Totals 25 2 3 2

Plymouth ab r h rbi

Craig cf 4 0 2 1

Scott ss 3 1 0 0

Slein c 3 1 2 0

Teall p 2 0 0 1

Clinton 2b 0 0 0 0

Ruff dh 3 0 0 0

Foust rf 3 1 1 1

Correll 1b 2 2 1 0

Birchmeier 3b 3 0 2 1

Lauber lf 2 0 1 1

Totals 25 5 9 5

Warsaw 000 002 0 - 2

Plymouth 113 000 x - 5

E - Stork, Scott. LOB - Warsaw 9, Plymouth 7. 2B - N. Milton 2. SB - Stork, Scott, Slein. CS - Scott. SF - Teall.

Warsaw ip h r er bb so

Barger L, 3-2 4 2/3 8 5 5 2 4

Nycz 1 1/3 1 0 0 0 0

Plymouth ip h r er bb so

Teall W, 4-0 7 3 2 1 5 9

WP - Teall 2, Barger 2. PB - Stork. HBP -ÊScott (by Nycz), Knepper (by Teall), Wilson (by Teall). [[In-content Ad]]