(Photo gallery by Teran Malone)
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — Two five-run innings provided the bulk of the offense for Frankfort on Friday as the Falcons outslugged Fairmont Senior, 13-5 to secure a meeting with Ripley in the Class AAA state baseball championship.
The Falcons now get the opportunity to win a second consecutive state championship after securing a Class AA title in 2024.
“They all believe in each other,” head coach Matt Miller said, “It’s just a fun group of kids to be around. They know that we can handle things.”
The Polar Bears jumped on Frankfort starter Lanson Orndorf in the top of the first with Cam Peschl leading off the game with a single and coming home when a deep drive by Logan Canfield hopped the left field fence for a ground rule double.
Later in the inning, Matt Masters lifted a fly ball to right field that was more than deep enough to score Canfield and hand Fairmont Senior a 2-0 lead before starting pitcher Brayden Gorby ever took the mound.
Entering with a season ERA of 0.70, Gorby handled the Falcons in the first inning but the second proved to be a different story.
Jaxon Hare and Rhett Sensabaugh both reached to start the inning and both crossed the plate on a line drive single by Uriah Cutter that was misplayed and evened the score at two. A Jesus Perdew walk and Lane Lease single loaded the bases for Gunnar Bradshaw who drew a free pass of his own and forced home a run to give the Falcons their first lead of the game.
That spelled the end of the day on the bump for Gorby and Canfield came on to replace him, coming one out away from avoiding further damage thanks to a double play but Blake Jacobs had different ideas.
He smoked a ball over Peschl’s head in center field to drive in both runs with a triple that punctuated the first of the Falcons’ big innings.
“We know we can hit so we knew we were going to score runs. Two runs wasn’t going to beat us today,” Miller said.
Fairmont Senior was not going to go down without a fight though. The Polar Bears manufactured single runs in the third, fourth, and fifth innings thanks to a throwing error on a Canfield grounder, run-scoring fielder’s choice from Noah Pethtel, and a towering sacrifice fly from Trevor Bigelow.
With the game tied in the bottom of the fifth, a trio of Canfield walks loaded the bases for Frankfort and his second pitch to Perdew slipped between Bigelow’s legs and ricocheted off the backstop. Jacobs came sprinting home without a throw to give the advantage right back to the Falcons.
After Perdew walked, Lane Lease came to the plate with a chance to break the game wide open and that’s exactly what he did. An opposite field line drive split the gap in right-center and provided all three runners the opportunity to come flying home.
One pitch later, Bradshaw sent a ball to the other gap and brought courtesy runner Cole Shanholtz in to double up the Polar Bears, 10-5.
A five-run lead still was not enough after Orndorf pitched a scoreless sixth as three more runs crossed the plate in the Frankfort half of the inning. Sensabaugh brought the first home with a sacrifice fly before Cutter came through with another big hit, a double that plated a pair.
Lease and Cutter brought the big swings in the big moments, combining to drive in seven runs with their respective RBI extra base hits.
“Senior leaders come up at big times sometimes and today they both did, very proud of them both. Base-clearing doubles for both of them when we needed it,” Miller said.
Ahead by eight, Orndorf closed out a complete game performance in the seventh, allowing the five Polar Bear runs on seven hits and a walk while striking out five.
“He’s been a bulldog all year. This is what we expect from him. Our defense plays great behind him,” Miller said, “He kept his pitch count down, even with giving up some runs and finished the game for us, which is big so we have everybody for tomorrow.”
Canfield was charged with the loss for Fairmont Senior which finishes the season with a record of 23-7. The Falcons advance to take on Ripley in the title game after the Vikings knocked off Winfield in the opposite semifinal matchup.
“David vs. Goliath, we got 475 kids, everybody else is around 800-900 kids so we’re going to keep fighting. We’re going to battle and we’re going to pick up the rock and sling it,” Miller said.