South Central's eight-run, sixth inning moves Trojans past Plymouth into district final

GALION − Down just 4-3 heading into the bottom of the sixth inning against Firelands Conference foe South Central, Plymouth head coach Jarrod Furr was asked after the game if he felt his team was in a good spot and his response was, "Absolutely."

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Big Red were.

After scoring one run each in the fourth and fifth inning to trim the Trojans lead into one, Plymouth found themselves within striking distance. Then South Central (16-8) struck gold and went on a hitting spree by scoring eight runs in that sixth inning to run away with a 12-3 win in the Division IV district semifinals over a Plymouth team that defeated them in the district tournament the last two years.

"They were aggressive at the plate," said South Central head coach Nick Kirk, of his team. "First few innings, we weren't as aggressive as we should have been. We saw a lot of pitches go by. Putting it in the pitchers hand instead of being aggressive. We switched that on, put the ball in play and good things happened."

"One thing about our team, once we get started, it's gas all the way," said South Central first baseman Bryan Chaffee, who's double in that sixth inning started the eight consecutive runs the Trojans poured on. "That one inning in that sixth, we just exploded man. Gap shot after gap shot. Doing that, not only brings our heads up but there heads down."

The biggest thread of the game revolved around the many fielding and throwing errors, along with wild pitches/passed balls, that Plymouth (11-13) committed throughout the game and South Central was able to capitalize off plenty. Of the 12 South Central runs they scored, just five of them were actually runs driven in off a base hit.

For the game, Big Red committed eight errors, while the Trojans only had one and fielding-wise seemed to get better as the game progressed.

"We told them at the beginning of the game that this is a bigger field and out of play is wider," Kirk said. "You have to be aggressive on the base paths. You have to be able to take that extra base but not be overly aggressive. We executed that to perfection."

"I'm running to first, and if I see a ball go pass, I'm not looking back. I'm looking straight at my coach," Chaffee said, who scored two runs and had three hits on the day. "A lot of trusting in your coaches and trusting in yourself."

"In order to beat South Central, who is a very good hitting team, we're gonna have to play clean baseball and come up with timely hits. Unfortunately, we didn't do either and they had the one explosive inning where they just went off," Furr said.

Chaffee, then looked ahead to the Trojans district title final on Friday against Seneca East, that he's pretty riled up for.

"As a sophomore, that's huge for me," Chaffee expressed. "Last year, we got knocked out in the first game. Just playing on this big field from a small school. It's huge."

jsimpson@gannett.com

Twitter/X:@JamesSimpsonII

This article originally appeared on Ashland Times Gazette: South Central moves past Plymouth in Division IV district semifinals