Rough fourth inning hurts Plymouth in softball district final loss to Mohawk
GALION — For the second year in a row, Plymouth went up against Mohawk in a Division IV district championship softball game.
And for the second year in a row, the Big Red came away empty-handed, falling 11-6 Thursday evening in Galion.
No. 1 seed Mohawk (20-6) used a huge fourth inning to overcome an early deficit and walk away as district champions again.
"Keep our heads up," said Plymouth coach Byron Bailey, on the message he conveyed to his players after the defeat. "You can't take nothing from that team, but we helped them out with a bunch of errors."
The fourth inning is where the game got away from No. 4 seed Plymouth (13-9).
After building a 5-1 lead through two innings and with the game going Plymouth's way, the Warriors scored two in the third and then hung six runs in the fourth inning to take a 9-5 advantage. Mohawk added two more runs in the fifth inning and the top seed never looked back after that.
"I believe that fourth inning it started to slip away from us," said Bailey. "The heads started to drop and the emotions started to show."
Mohawk scored 10 unanswered runs at one point, with constant errors and poor fielding in both the infield and outfield plaguing Big Red.
"There was some errors, a couple of walks and a couple of bunts we didn't get to," said Bailey. "Our bunt coverage is our strong point but we made a couple of errors with the bases loaded. With the athletes they got, they're going to score runs."
Plymouth's Chloe Trine and Bree Fellows each had two RBIs, with Macenzie Back and Jayline Branham both driving in one run.
After a district runner-up finish, Bailey added he likes the future and the makeup of his team.
"We'll be back," he said. "We are a young team. A driven team. Offseason is going to be a little different this year. We'll be back."
jsimpson@gannett.com
Twitter: @JamesSimpsonII
This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Mohawk defeats Plymouth in softball district final
