Frankfort wins battle of No. 1 squads in extra innings

SHORT GAP, W.Va. — The battle of the area's No. 1 squads lived up to the hype, and then some, on Thursday.

Frankfort's Lanson Orndorf and Hampshire's Channing Wilt put on pitching clinics, but the Falcons (13-6) did just enough for a 4-3 victory in eight innings.

"Good win, they did a lot to help us," Frankfort manager Matt Miller said. "We did a lot to help them. Which isn't kinda the way the game's supposed to be played when you've got two really good teams. But that's what happened tonight.

"We found a way to get things done at the end. We were very good at the plate the last inning, we were not good at the plate the first seven innings."

The teams were tied for the top spot in this week's Area Top 5. Hampshire surprised Frankfort taking the first meeting on April 1.

With Frankfort trailing 2-0 in the fifth inning Thursday, a dropped fly ball in right evened the score.

In the top of the eighth, the Trojans (11-7) took a 3-2 lead on a sacrifice fly off the bat of Mason Wolford.

In the bottom half, Braeden Laffey and Orndorf (Charleston commit) drew free passes.

Orndorf and Carson Durst each recorded a pair of hits for the Falcons.

An error at short scored Laffey from second, then Jaxon Hare was intentionally walked to load the bases.

Rhett Sensabaugh got ahead in the count 3-1, then watched ball four for a walk-off walk.

"It's everything, if we make those plays, we're still playing," Hampshire skipper Ken Maiers said of the costly errors.

"We probably played one of the better teams, as far as I'm concerned. Probably top five, top six in the state, and we showed well."

Hampshire's first two runs both came in the top of the fifth.

Mason Slade hit a grounder up the middle for a RBI single, then scored on an offline throw from the catcher to third.

Orndorf allowed one earned run on four hits and two walks with seven strikeouts in eight innings of work.

"He worked ahead, all game," Miller said. "He was ahead of hitters all day, throwing strikes. He threw eight pitches in the first inning, I think he was at 16 after two. He kept the pitch count there and completed eight innings because of that, that was huge."

Wilt lasted 6 2/3 frames and allowed two runs (both unearned) on nine hits and two walks with four punchouts.

"Lanson's probably one of the best in the state, and our junior showed that he's gonna be one of the best pitchers in the state," Maiers said. "He's gonna be reckoned with in the future."

He stranded eight runners and got out of two bases loaded jams and left a pair of runners twice.

"We hit the ball with two outs against Allegany, today we didn't." Miller said. "Channing did a good job keeping the ball off the plate, outside, made us work the opposite way and we didn't work the opposite way. We kept rolling over balls to the second baseman, not hitting the ball hard."