Late Home Run Propels Plum Baseball To Victory

Plum’s baseball team is developing a flair for the dramatic this season. The Mustangs once again performed late-inning heroics, propelling them to an 8-6 victory against Franklin Regional on Wednesday. 

With its third narrow win in the past five games, Plum improved its conference record to 6-1, and 8-3 overall.

Mustangs first basemen Christian Suprano belted a two-run homer with two outs in the top of the seventh to break open a tie game. 

Suprano’s shot gave Plum its third lead of the contest, and Anthony Garofalo struck out on the side in the bottom of the inning to secure the victory. 

Plum Head Coach Carl Vollmer was glad to get the victory, but was not pleased that his team squandered an early advantage. 

“We would prefer not to do it this way," he said. "We let them back in it. I talked to the team about opening leads up. But the upside is that good teams get it done when they have to, and that’s what we did.”

After a scoreless first inning, the Mustangs scored three times in the second inning due to a number of Franklin Regional miscues. 

Plum scored initially on a throwing error at third on a stolen base, and then tallied two more runs when William O’Block reached on an error on a ball hit to first.

Franklin Regional committed four errors during the first two innings. Vollmer gave his squad credit in this regard.

“We are a team that puts pressure on the defense," he said. "We like getting movement in the infield by showing bunt. We’re an aggressive team.”

The Panthers responded in the bottom of the inning with two runs of their own, as pitcher Matt DiDiano singled to bring in two runs. 

Plum scored three runs again in the top of the fifth despite collecting only one hit in the inning. Lucas Koshinsky hit a sacrifice fly, following by a run-scoring groundout by Nicholas Stotler. Cory Myers then scored on a wild pitch to push the Mustangs’ lead to four. 

Franklin Regional showed resiliency in battling back over the next two innings as Ben Shorthouse’s fielder’s choice brought home the tying run in the bottom of the sixth. 

Plum’s starting pitcher Cory Podvasnik was able to pick off Shorthouse, however, to escape further trouble in the inning. Podvasnik was credited with the win, as he completed six innings, surrendering seven hits while walking four batters and striking out two.

Plum returns home on Friday to host section foe Central Catholic.