Plano baseball struggles to get the bats going, falls to Sandwich

It had been six days since both the Sandwich and Plano baseball teams played before the two faced one another on Monday.

Three of the last four outings for Sandwich were postponed due to the weather, and Plano missed five of six games for the same reason. Needless to say, the Indians and Reapers were ready to go in the first Interstate Eight Conference outing of the season for both teams.

Sandwich, however, was the team that came out on top with the 8-2 victory in Plano. The Indians were 5-2 overall entering Game 2 of the series against the Reapers on Tuesday.

Plano dropped to 4-3 overall.

“We hadn’t played (in six days) and it showed,” Plano coach John Parpet said. “The bad part is we were playing really well, and then we stopped playing with the weather.”

Sandwich saw No. 1 starter Justin Sartori go the distance with 11 strikeouts, six hits and no walks.

“Justin was on, and that really wasn’t his best stuff,” Sandwich coach Jason Van Pelt said. “He was out there battling, and we made some good plays behind him. Overall, we played a really good game.”

Before Sartori even stepped on the mound, his Sandwich teammates spotted him two runs in the top of the first. Catcher Colton Watros hit a two-RBI double that allowed Zac Dabbert and Travis Fordon to score after they led the game off with back-to-back singles.

Al Burgin’s RBI bunt single gave Sandwich the 3-0 advantage in the third while a series of Plano errors got Dabbert across home plate again in the fourth.

A walk, stolen base, error and passed ball scored Jake Roop in the fifth for the 5-0 lead for the Indians. Sandwich’s big inning was the sixth, when it scored three runs on four hits, including a two-RBI double from Jordan Isham and an RBI single from Brock Delphey.

Sandwich added two more runs in the seventh, including Sartori scoring on a series of errors.

Plano didn’t get its first run until the bottom of the fifth. That’s when Elijah Maisonet led off getting hit by a pitch, moved to third on Danny Nunez’ single and scored on Ricky Bruns’ sacrifice fly RBI.

The Reapers scored again in the sixth after Sergio Chavez led off with a triple and reached home on Tyler Ward’s sacrifice fly RBI. Sandwich out-hit Plano,13-6.

“Offense creates enthusiasm. It’s getting to that point now that we are struggling so much offensively, everyone is trying to overdo it and make too many plays - making plays that aren’t there to be made,” Parpet said. “Once we get going offensively, we’ll start to see a lot of those mishaps go away.”

Morris 9, Plano 2: Prior to Sandwich, the Reapers lost to Morris, 9-2, on April 5. Benson and Nunez had one hit each and Nunez recorded the lone RBI for Plano. Both runs were scored in the top of the second.