SYRACUSE - The Plymouth Pilgrims' 2-0 loss to the Wawasee Warriors Wednesday could have been called a pitcher's duel.
Playing on his home field, Wawasee junior Jake Goldenberg pitched all seven innings, giving up just three hits, while striking out 10."He's got two seven-inning, complete-game shutouts in his last two outings," Wawasee coach Jeff Phillips said of Goldenberg, reffering to his 6-0 win over Heritage Saturday. "He's at like 46 strikeouts and 13 walks right now, so he's doing a lot for us. Obviously, you can win a lot of games when you score two runs if you have the pitching."
Throughout the Northern Lakes Conference game, Plymouth's closest bet to score came with two-out and runners at second and third in the third inning. But after giving up two-straight singles, Goldenberg struck out Sam Faulstich, eluding danger.
"That's a good pitcher there," Plothow said of the Wawasee left hander. "He kept us off-balance and hit his spots. We knew coming in, that he was pretty decent - from what we had heard. He showed us today."
To his own pitcher's credit, Plymouth junior Jay Badell started things off by giving up five of Wawasee's seven hits in the first two innings. During that span, Wawasee was only able to push two runs across, but it proved to be enough, although Plymouth right fielder Kyle Thoden saved two potential runs with a diving catch to end the first inning.
"I thought, Jay Badell, after getting bailed out by Kyle out there, settled down and pitched a good ballgame after that," Plothow said. "It was probably his best of the year after that first inning. We just didn't do anything at the plate to help him."
Plymouth's biggest letdown came from its No. 3, 4 and 5 hitters. On the night, the heart of the lineup went 0 for 9, including eight strikeouts.
"We looked like we were swinging newspapers up there," Plothow said.
Wawasee's first run came in the first inning when Goldenberg hit a two-out, RBI-single that plated Dan Dingeldein from third base. Wawasee's Devin Kneller followed Goldenberg with a hit of his own, later moving to second on a wild pitch. But with runners at second and third, Thoden robbed Kyle Voirol of two sure RBIs with a stellar play in right.
Wawasee was limited to just one run in the inning, but with Goldenberg on the mound, the Warriors were feeling pretty comfortable about a 1-0 advantage.
"We're confident in him, and when he's pitching, the defense's confident in him," Phillips said. "That makes plays that much easier."
Making plays even easier was a 2-0 lead, which occurred when Jose Rodriguez scored Hayden Shock from third base on a deep sacrifice fly to left field in the second inning.
"In a game like this, doing you're job in a spot like that to get a run is huge," Phillips said of Rodriuez, who finished the game 0 for 3, but had the big RBI. "You don't have to get hits every time to be productive."
With two runs across, the Warriors were able to ride Goldenberg to the win, leaving a 15-0 loss to Northridge Tuesday in the rearview mirror.
"We're coming off a tough one yesterday," Phillips said about the previous day's loss. "We gave up a bunch of runs in an inning, then we come out today and give up none. That's baseball."
The bunch of a runs were 15 in the third inning to conference-leading Northridge, but Phillips is working to keep his guys in a positive frame of mind, moving to 2-3 in NLC play with Wednesday's win.
"We talked about just winning the week in the NLC," he said. "Win two out of three each week, and you can compete (in the conference). It doesn't matter what the score is when you lose, as long as you win the two other ones."
Wawasee's third NLC game of the week will be against Goshen at home Friday at 5 p.m.
WAWASEE 2, PLYMOUTH 0
P 000 000 0 - 0 3 1
W 110 000 x - 2 7 0
Jake Goldenberg (W, 7IP, 0R, 3H, 2BB, 10K) and Dylan Wallace; Jay Badell (L, 6IP, 2R, 2ER, 7H, 0BB, 7K) and Cody Bucher
Records - Plymouth 3-7 (1-4 NLC), Wawasee 4-5 (2-3 NLC)
JV - Plymouth 19, Wawasee 6
P 612 037 - 19 20 2
W 000 033 - 6 5 2
Lucas Hill (W) and Kyle Cartwright; Jaemeson Gee (L, 0IP, 2H 6ER, 4BB), Nate Schwartz (1, 5IP, 12H, 5ER, 1BB, 1K), Ryan Garrison (6, 1IP, 6H, 8ER, 2BB)
