PLYMOUTH — With every big win an even bigger obstacle has been placed in front of the Plymouth baseball team. After knocking off area and Four Rivers Conference rival Riverside 16-6 to win a Sectional championship on Tuesday, the Vikings must now face East Columbus, the No. 1 ranked team in the state according to Impact Baseball.com, in a three-game series slated to begin today at 7 p.m.
Plymouth (23-4), the No. 1 seed out of the Four Rivers Conference, has played nothing but conference opponents so far this postseason and has been chomping at the bit to play a different opponent. The Vikings will their they wish today when they take on East Columbus (20-4), the No. 1 seed from the Three Rivers Conference.
“They have two really good pitchers and they are ranked No. 1 in the state from what I hear,” Plymouth coach Terry Perry said. “They have four losses but two of those losses are by 4-A schools which are still in the playoffs.”
Due to conference priority, East Columbus will have the home field advantage as it will host Game 1 before coming to Plymouth Friday. Should there be a Game 3, that will be played Saturday at East Columbus.
A three-game series can be extremely challenging for managers as pitching depth figures to play a huge role throughout the matchup. Plymouth used both of its starters on Tuesday as Sean Holloway threw 4 1/3 innings before D.J. Cook pitched the final 1 2/3. Perry said Cook, the fresher of the two, will get the game Game 1 start.
Those two hurlers have carried the bulk of the load for the Vikings this year, but at some point it is expected Plymouth will have to use a third or fourth pitcher. The big question is will the end of the rotation players rise to the occasion.
“(The series) is going to make us have to go deeper into our pitching,” Perry said. “We’ve been getting by all year with D.J. and Sean but we are probably going to have to use Josh Wynn and Mister Davis at some point.”
The Vikings’ pitchers have done a solid job this season but its been the work of their potent lineup that has gotten them this far.
Plymouth slugged 14 hits during Tuesday night’s game against quality Riverside pitching. The Vikings’ Nos. 1-3 hitters, Holloway, Ronnell Blount and Davis combined to go 7-for-10 with nine RBIs to knock off the Knights.
Plymouth will need that kind of production again to keep pace with East Columbus.
The Vikings have been a gritty bunch this year squeezing out several one-run games throughout the season and Perry said his team must continue to play its Pete Rose-style of ball.
“They key for us to win this series is to play hard and just hustle, hustle, hustle. That’s what we’ve been preaching in practice,” Perry said. “We know we have to have good pitching by D.J. and we know we have to take care of things on defense. They like to pull the ball, so our third baseman, shortstop and center fielder will have to have a big day for us and then we have to go out there and hit the baseball.”