Frankfort wins playoff opener 6-1
May 4—SHORT GAP, W.V.a. — No. 2 seed Frankfort opened the Class AA, Region I, Section 2 playoffs with a 6-1 win over visiting No. 3 seed Berkeley Springs on Wednesday.
After two days of heavy rain postponed the majority of area games, the sun came out and allowed for softball to be played.
"Part of being a coach, you have to be like an amateur meteorologist," Frankfort head coach Duke Lantz said. "We wanted to get a sectional game in. We knew Keyser canceled and that gives us a day off tomorrow."
The Falcons (12-10) never trailed and pulled away for good in the third inning.
Frankfort scored a pair of runs in the first inning on an RBI double by Aubrie Root and an RBI single by Raley Nestor.
"I feel that's a key," Lantz said of taking an early lead. "When you can play from the lead, it's so much different. We were able to get a couple runs and I think that's huge."
The Indians (15-14) scored in the third inning on a Alaira Harrington RBI single.
The Falcons pulled away in its half of the third capitalizing off several Berkeley Springs errors. The Indians committed two in the inning, both leading to runs.
"If they're putting the ball in play, they have to make a play," Lantz said. "If they make mistakes, we have to capitalize. A lot of times over the past couple of years, we've been the one making the mistakes. It's nice to be the one capitalizing."
Frankfort scored three runs in the inning and pushed its lead to 5-1. After a scoreless fifth, a fielder's choice on a groundout added another run to the Falcons' lead in the sixth.
"I thought we hit pretty well," Lantz said. "Even the balls we got out on were hard hit balls right at people. Even the groundouts and flyouts were good solid hits. That's what it's gonna take."
Avery Noel pitched a complete game for the Falcons. She gave up seven hits and one run with no walks and eight strikeouts.
"You know what you're gonna get," Lantz said of Noel. "She's strong on the mound, she's in the strike zone. She challenges hitters and Berkeley has some good hitters. She did a good job keeping the ball in the strike zone, making them swing."
Root and Anya McClung each had a pair of hits for Frankfort.
Harrington also went the distance for Berkeley Springs, allowing eight hits, four runs and two walks with six strikeouts. Harrington and Ocean Clatterbuck had a pair of hits for the Indians.
The win was Frankfort's third in four games against Berkeley Springs this season. More importantly for Lantz, it allows the Falcons to stay in the winner's bracket of the double elimination sectionals.
"You wanna stay in the winner's bracket as long as you can," he said. "We wanna stay out of that elimination game, so it's very important to get that first win."
The Falcons will play the winner of No. 1 Keyser and No. 4 Grafton on Friday. The Golden Tornado would host Frankfort if they win, otherwise the Falcons would host the Bearcats.
"It's Keyser and Frankfort and these girls all know each other," Lantz said of the potential Mineral County matchup. "Some of them play travel ball together and Keyser's been the section champion I don't know how many years in a row. If you're a competitor, you wanna play the best."
Jordan Kendall is a Sports Writer for the Cumberland Times-News. Follow him on Twitter @JKendallCTN.
