Connor Reed throws a pitch during the second game of the Town and Country Tournament 10U State Finals in Plymouth Monday. (Photos by James Costello)

PLYMOUTH — Last spring, the NorthWood High School baseball team enjoyed a record-setting season. If the Nappanee 10U team is any indication, the program ought to be pretty good in years to come, too.

The Nap 10U club finished up its own banner year Monday at the Town and Country State Finals in Plymouth. Unfortunately, they fell a step short of their ultimate goal of a state title, falling 12-2 and 8-2 to their hosts, but the good news is that they still have plenty of baseball ahead of them.

“I’m just really proud of these kids. They all came out and did exactly what we asked from them at the beginning of the season: Just give effort, hustle, and forget about the bad play and worry about the next pitch. It was a great season,” said head coach Wes Bogan.

Nappanee needed to beat Plymouth just once after handing their rivals a 6-5 defeat in the semifinals at the double-elimination tourney Sunday afternoon. But Plymouth battled back into the championship with a win over Oak Hill later Sunday evening before topping Nappanee in back-to-back games Monday.

It was an all-too-familiar situation for Plymouth after they’d had to play Nappanee three times and two straight games at last week’s semi-state. After forcing a rubber match, they wound up on the wrong side of a 6-5 decision to Nappanee, but head coach Nick Chaney described it as a perfect dress rehearsal for Monday’s Town and Country finale.

“It was the same scenario today so you had to tell your kids ‘You had it last week, and there’s no surprises here. We know exactly where we stand,’” he said. “We’ve talked about it many a time where if you get down, mentally you cannot get down. You’ve got to always stick around.

“We’d had plenty of dress rehearsals where we knew where we were supposed to be. You can tell the kids all the time, but if they learn through experience and you just remind them of where they were — it played out perfectly. That’s exactly what they did today. They were on top of it.”

Plymouth’s 10U baseball team celebrates following its state title win over Nappanee Monday.

The hosts held Nappanee to just four hits en route to the runs-ahead rule win in the first game, but the visitors did jump on top with a run in the first.

Ean Bogan drew a one-out walk, and Mason Bogan and Tyler Raasch drove him home with back-to-back hits, the latter a double through the gap at second by Raasch. But Mason was thrown out trying to score on Raasch’s two-bagger, and Raasch was gunned down heading to third on the play to end the threat. Plymouth plated two runs in the top of the second, and NorthWood evened it up at 2-all in the bottom half of the inning.

Noah Cook and Brogan Ferrell both reached on back-to-back errors at short, and Nate Dutkowski loaded the bases legging out a single on a well-placed bunt. Connor Reed singled in Cook, but Plymouth starter Preston Wolfe wiggled off the hook to leave the score knotted. Tre Jordan drove in Jak Chaney for the go-ahead in the third, and the Plymouth lineup got hot with three hits for three runs in the third, then stayed hot stretching another six hits into six runs in the fifth to gap Nappanee by 10.

Nappanee again struggled to string hits together in the second game, while Plymouth continued to find the timely hits it needed. The hosts plated two runs in the first and second innings, then scored three in the third courtesy of a two-run triple by Wolfe for a 5-0 lead. Nappanee scored its only two runs in the fourth when Dutkowski and Ryder Ransberger recorded back-to-back singles, Drew Rains drew a walk to load the bases with none out, and Plymouth reliever Jak Chaney walked in Dutkowski.

But Nappanee hitters reached base just two more times over the final two frames, and Plymouth plated four runs on five hits and an error in the sixth to bring the score to its final margin.

“We’ve played this Plymouth team a number of times, and it was always a back-and-forth affair. It’s always been close games. Tonight it was definitely about them hitting in key moments with runners on,” explained Wes Bogan. “Things worked out for them. It wasn’t like we weren’t hitting the ball; we just couldn’t string it together. Two evenly-matched teams. We proved that through the season playing them a number of times, and it just came down to these two games, they came out on top.”

“ We’ve had — I don’t know how many games, probably 10 games that we’ve played them in — and NorthWood is us. We’ve both dimed each other once, and every other game has been a dog fight, just like tonight was,” said Nick Chaney. “So the kids had no surprises of what we were dealing with — a very familiar foe and a very good foe. They’ve got a lot of good players, and they are well-taught and play the game the right way.”

NorthWood closes out the year at 23-12.

Elsewhere in the Town and Country State Tournament Monday, Frankfort beat Monticello for the 8U state title, and Flora bested Oak Hill for the 12U championship.