HUNTINGTON, W.Va. — Frankfort senior Lanson Orndorf tossed a five-hitter as the Falcons locked up a spot in the Class AA semifinals with a 6-1 win over Region II rival Lincoln.
Orndorf, a University of Charleston signee, struck out four batters and he walked only one in an efficient performance. 74 of his 107 pitches were for strikes. The complete game effort keeps the rest of the FHS pitching staff available for Thursday’s semifinal contest against the winner of the No. 3 Independence/No. 6 Buffalo game.
“With it being so far away to Thursday, it wouldn’t have been such a big deal. But I am very happy he finished,” said Frankfort head coach Matt Miller. “It keeps everybody fresh for the rest of the week.
“We played pretty well defensively. We pitched well. We need to do some better things on offense than what we did today. But we’ll get better.”
No. 2 Frankfort (25-7) scored the game’s five final five runs and they scored at least one run in four of their six innings at the plate. Both teams had five hits in the contest. Blake Jacobs delivered an RBI triple and he walked twice. Orndorff, Cole Shanholtz and Rhett Sensabaugh also drove in runs for Frankfort.
“We came up in some big situations. Blake [Jacobs] hit the ball really hard when we needed him to. We put a couple of two-run innings together. We got Lanson enough to win. I am happy with that.”
Making their first state tournament appearance since 2009, Lincoln (21-14) scored their run in the third inning with an RBI double from Colton Edwards.