WATERFORD — The unbeaten Fort Frye Cadets continued their torrid beginning to the 2023 campaign with an 18-6 victory over the arch-rival Waterford Wildcats Thursday evening in Waterford.
The Cadets batted around three times in the six inning contest, pounded out 18 base-hits while all 10 hitters that took an at-bat collected at least one base hit to roll to their sixth straight win of the season.
“I’m really pleased with the approach at the plate by our kids right now and they are really, really swinging it well,” said Fort Frye head coach Trey Engle. “We are kind of riding high and are just going to try to keep it going.”
The Cadets wasted little time getting on the board as they scored four times in the top of the first inning off of Waterford starting pitcher Kaleb Wright.
Ethan Duskey plated Fort Frye starting pitcher Dawson Layton with the first run of the game with a base hit and third baseman Sean Miller followed with a double to extend the lead to two.
Run scoring singles by Clayton Miller and Clay Gruey capped the scoring as the Cadets gave Layton a four-run cushion to work with when he took the mound in the bottom of the first.
It took Waterford just two swings of the bat to get one of those runs back as Mason Heiss jumped on the first pitch he saw from Layton and doubled to the fence in left-center field before Lane Cline hit Layton’s first pitch up the middle for an RBI single to cut the lead to 4-1.
Layton helped himself by snagging a shot up the middle off the bat of Zavier Heiss and started a 1-6-3 double play that stifled the Wildcats first inning.
Fort Frye added two more in the second when center fielder Owen Brown led off the inning by hitting a sinking line drive to right field and raced all the way around the bases for an inside-the-park home run after the Wildcat right fielder came up empty on a diving attempt.
Waterford made six errors in the game including one later in the second inning that enabled the Cadets to increase their lead to 6-1.
Layton retired the side in order in the second but developed some control issues in the last of third as he walked three consecutive batters including a bases-loaded bases on balls to Zavier Heiss that plated the second Wildcat run of the game.
Engle elected to pull Layton at that point and turned the ball over to Jackson Lowe.
Lowe managed to get out of the bases loaded jam to keep the Cadet lead at four and went the rest of the way for the Fort.
“That was kind of uncharacteristic of Dawson but he is such a bulldog and was fighting through it,” said Engle of Layton’s control issues. “Jackson (Lowe) has been waiting for his opportunity and he’s a senior who knows what his job is and it worked out well tonight.”
Brown’s RBI double keyed a two-run third inning for Fort Frye before they broke things wide open by sending 11 hitters to the plate in the top of the fifth, scoring six times to take a commanding 14-2 lead.
The Cadets collected six hits in the fifth including run-scoring singles by Clayton Miller and catcher Bryndan Riddle and a two-run double off the bat of senior first baseman Carter Brooker.
Waterford avoided a mercy rule by scoring three times in the last of the fifth on RBI base hits by Colten Miller and Clay Hansell and the lone Cadet fielding error of the game.
Fort Frye answered with four more in the top of the sixth with Lowe and Riddle delivering RBI singles and Layton knocking in a pair with his third hit of the game.
Waterford managed to get a lone run off of Lowe in the bottom of the sixth on a run-scoring single by Mason Heiss, his third hit of the game, but it wouldn’t be near enough as the Cadets improved their record to a perfect 6-0.
In addition to Layton’s three base hits, Brown, Duskey, Clayton Miller, Lowe, Riddle and Gruey each collected two-hits apiece.
“We teach approach, approach and approach and we try to tell them if we don’t strike out and put the ball in play good things are going to happen,: said Engle. “They seem like they are really starting to buy in to that and that’s a great thing.”
Lowe picked up the win as he fanned three over his three and two thirds of an inning of relief work.
Wright suffered the loss for the Wildcats who fell to 1-3 in the early season with a Tri Valley Conference game at Southern scheduled for Friday.
The Cadets will look to remain undefeated when they travel to Parkersburg South Friday.