Home runs, efficiency on the basepaths, crisp defense and dialed-in pitching.
Undefeated Plum had all that and more, and that was just in the first two innings.
The third-ranked Mustangs are starting to assert their dominance in Section 1-5A baseball, and a near-perfect effort Wednesday in a 10-0, run-ruled win at Penn-Trafford had veteran coach Carl Vollmer smiling — with caution.
Plum was as pristine as it is purple, but no baseball coach will admit to perfection.
“We played pretty complete today,” Vollmer said. “As a coach, you’re always looking for things: do this better, do that better. But we did a lot of good things today. There isn’t a lot you can say anything bad about. It pulled everything to our side.”
Senior Braden Kemmerer tossed a five-inning no-hitter, silencing a potent lineup with a error-free defense behind him, and junior Max Vollmer and senior Enzo Mele hit home runs during a five-run first inning for the Mustangs (8-0, 3-0).
Plum has three straight shutouts and has outscored its eight opponents 61-6.
It was one of those days for Penn-Trafford (6-3, 3-2), which had won four of five and was coming off a sweep of Armstrong.
The Warriors had three errors, failing to execute defensively as the Mustangs added on.
“They have a nice team, but we didn’t make the routine plays,” Warriors coach Lou Cortazzo said. “We came out and gave them six outs in the first inning. When you don’t make plays, you put more pressure on your pitcher.”
The Warriors, who didn’t have a baserunner until the fifth on a walk, hadn’t lost by 10 runs since a 10-0 loss to Latrobe in 2021. They hadn’t lost by 10 runs at home since a 10-0 defeat against Canon-McMillan in 2017.
Kemmerer struck out two and walked two behind a wall of offense that had the Mustangs in control early.
Plum used four pitchers to throw a no-hitter against Seneca Valley earlier in the season. That game went seven innings, with Kemmerer, senior Greg Huff, sophomore Dom Lauletta and junior Brennan Ryan contributing on the mound to a 6-0 victory.
“Kemmerer probably pitched 20 games where he was better than he was today,” Carl Vollmer said. “But he had good enough stuff, and our guys made some nice plays.”
After a Warriors error to start the game, Plum went to work. Max Vollmer homered for the fourth straight game, a two-run shot to right. Then, senior Connor Wilson and junior Brennan Ryan singled to set the table for Mele, who crushed his first homer of the season to deep left. The three-run blast made it 5-0.
In the second, after a leadoff single by senior Timmy Ruggiero and another by Max Vollmer, senior Connor Wilson singled to center to extend the lead to 7-0.
An error led to the eighth run.
Penn-Trafford went quietly in the first four innings on six groundouts, three flyouts — Ryan made a diving snag in center — and two strikeouts.
Plum reached a 10-run lead in the third on a two-out, two-run single by Ryan. A walk and an error contributed to the Mustangs scoring against Penn-Trafford senior pitcher Dom Delio.
Junior Kyle Grabowski pitched the fourth and fifth innings.
Max Vollmer, Wilson and Ryan all had two hits.
Lauletta doubled for the Mustangs, who had 11 hits.
“We worked all week on cuts because we know how Plum runs,” Cortazzo said. “We didn’t have a cut today. We need to play better as a team. We need a leader to step up and take charge. We have to wash it off and get ready for (Thursday’s game at Plum). We’ll take a split.”