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PLYMOUTH - Plymouth and Triton's baseball teams both won 21 games this year, but when they met for the first time in a sectional game Tuesday, they found out they weren't in the same league.
Plymouth smoked Triton 15-0 in six innings.
"Hey, they're by far the best team we've played all year," Triton coach Jim Shively said. "They were head and shoulders better than us. I will say we didn't see a better team than us all year until we played them today."
The Pilgrims scored two runs or more in every inning but one. When the first inning ended, Plymouth led 2-0.
Everything that could go wrong for Triton, did. Wild pitches. Wild pitches that catchers couldn't find. Fielders colliding into each other. Bats that went dead.
Triton left-handed starter Jeff Salisbury threw two costly wild pitches in the first inning.
Plymouth leadoff man Ryan Colvin hit the first pitch of the game into right field for a double. He went to third on a wild pitch. The next batter, Mike Scott, walked.
Chris Myers then reached first when Triton third baseman Justin Grubbs and shortstop Cory Monesmith ran into each other trying to field the ball.
Colvin scored, and it was all downhill for Triton from there. Salisbury uncorked his second wild pitch, and Scott scored all the way from second. Triton catcher David Sauer couldn't find the ball.
"A couple of things didn't go our way, then it kind of compounded on us," Shively said. "Our guys came out a little tight."
Even Triton's bats couldn't come through. The Trojans came in with a .386 team batting average. Two players - Monesmith and Scott Blackford - were batting over .500.
But they hadn't faced Plymouth right-hander Mike Layman and his blazing fastball before. Layman entered with a 6-1 record and a 1.75 ERA.
The robust hitting team with a .386 average tallied two hits off Layman.
Blackford had one, a single to lead off the top of the second. Salisbury promptly lined out into a double play at first base.
The Pilgrims scored four runs in the second and third. A Nick Wise double drove in two runs in the second, and a Myers double drove in two runs in the third.
Dan Winkle took care of the offense the rest of the way. He hit a three-run homer over the left-field fence in the fourth then tacked on a two-run homer in the sixth. This from a guy batting seventh in the lineup.
"No, I didn't expect 15-0," Plymouth coach Bill Nixon said. "I didn't know if we'd win.
"I had it figured this way. If Layman's on, they will have trouble scoring. I mean, when he's on, there's not too many teams that can hit his stuff.
"If he's not on, we could get beat."
Plymouth, 22-4-1, meets John Glenn (7-19) at 7:30 p.m. Friday. Bremen (16-10) and LaVille (6-20) meet at 5 p.m. Friday.
Plymouth won the sectional last year and advanced to the semi-state.
All wasn't lost because of the sectional defeat, Shively said. His team, which finished 21-5, still set the school record for wins in a season.
"Thank God for single A baseball next year," he said. "I just wish we had it this year, because I don't think there was a better single A team out there than us.
"We had a good year. We don't need to go out thinking the world's over."
