Plum’s Braden Kemmerer was in control on the mound, the defense behind him played clean and the offense was equal parts potent and patient Thursday in a 10-0, five-inning Section 1-5A victory over Kiski Area at a sunny-but-chilly Plum High School.
Kemmerer tossed a two-hitter with nine strikeouts, and the Mustangs pounded out eight hits and drew eight walks against four Cavaliers pitchers.
“Having the ability to win and learn from the mistakes we made is a good thing, so if we get a chance to play in some bigger games as the season goes on, we are executing at a higher level,” Plum coach Carl Vollmer said.
“These guys understand that and are mature about it. We made some bunting and baserunning mistakes today. There are times when you get burned by some of those mistakes, but we swung the bats well and did a lot of other good things that helped us, too. We were persistent with scoring in every inning.”
Plum, 12-1 overall and 6-1 in section play, won its fourth in a row since its only loss of the season, a 4-1 section setback to Penn-Trafford on April 9.
The Mustangs entered Monday’s matchup scoring 7.5 runs a game and giving up just 1.3.
Kiski Area fell to 3-7 overall, 3-4 in the section.
The Cavaliers had pulled even in section play with last week’s sweep (17-5, 5-3) of Armstrong.
Kiski Area and Plum will do battle Tuesday to wrap up the series. First pitch at Kiski’s home field is set for 4 p.m.
“We’ll see what happens tomorrow at our place,” Kiski Area coach Mike Manning said. “Hopefully, things work out where we can get one back.”
Kemmerer gave up a single and a walk with one out in the top of the first, but a groundout and a strikeout kept Kiski Area off the board.
Cavaliers center fielder Lucas Klimkowski doubled to lead off the second and moved to third on a sacrifice bunt, but Kemmerer again bore down to induce a popout to short and a strikeout to quell the Cavaliers’ threat.
“Getting out of those two innings without allowing any runs was a huge momentum shift,” Vollmer said.
Kemmerer faced the minimum the rest of the way. Kiski Area leadoff hitter John Deluca walked to start the third, but he was erased on a throw down to first by Mustangs catcher Cam Napierkowski.
Kemmerer then retired the final eight batters he faced, striking out six in that stretch.
“Braden was a little wobbly in the first, but then he settled down,” Vollmer said. “His last three innings, he was super sharp. As sharp as he’s been in a couple weeks. It was really good to see him settle in and be him. That is what we expect from him. He threw a lot of pitches for strikes and was in control.”
Kiski Area coach Mike Manning said he hoped his offense would have been able to do more against Kemmerer.
“He seemed to get stronger as the game went on,” Manning said. “I don’t know the number, but I think he threw close to 80 percent strikes or something crazy like that. He was awesome.”
Plum scored a run in the first, two in the second, two in the third, four in the fourth and the final one in the bottom of the fifth to put the mercy rule into effect.
Napierkowski led off the home half of the fifth with a triple to the wall in center.
A trio of pinch hitters did the rest.
Mike Roberts drew a walk, and Kadyn Ballew was hit by a pitch to load the bases.
Andy Verrengia then hit a grounder to Cavaliers shortstop John Deluca, who came up throwing to home for the forceout. But the bases remained loaded.
Joe Verzinskie was at the plate for Plum when Kiski Area reliever Kyle Smith uncorked a wild pitch that brought home Roberts with the final run.
Napierkowski finished the game with two hits and a run scored.
Andrew Monaco doubled home a pair of runs in the fourth, and Max Vollmer knocked in a run with a single in the same inning.
An inning earlier, Enzo Mele doubled sharply with one out, scoring Connor Wilson who had also doubled and Monaco who had drawn a walk.
Plum got all the runs it needed in the first, and Vollmer said he appreciated the way it happened.
Vollmer drew a one-out walk, went to second on a passed ball, moved to third on a bunt from Wilson and scored on a single from Brennan Ryan.
“Brennan has been really good for us this year driving in runs,” Vollmer said.
Henry Krogh took the loss for Kiski Area. He worked the first three innings and gave up four hits, five walks and five earned runs while striking out two.
“Plum has a lot of good hitters in their lineup, but Henry threw 61 pitches and only 20 of them were strikes, pretty much the opposite of Kemmerer. Henry has really good stuff if he throws it over the plate. He can compete with anybody. Today just wasn’t his day. I made a mound visit, and he said that he just couldn’t find anything.”