Frontier edges Shadyside, 2-1, in OVAC semi

Frontier’s Kaycee Berentz delivers a pitch against Shadyside during the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference 2A semifinals Monday at J.B. Chambers I-470 Complex in Wheeling, W.Va.
(Photo Provided)

WHEELING — A late push was not quite enough for the No. 3 Shadyside Tigers on Monday against the No. 2 Frontier Cougars at the J.B. Chambers I-470 Complex, Shadyside falling 2-1 despite rallying in their final turn at-bat in the OVAC 2A semifinals.

Down 2-0 going into the seventh, Shadyside revved up what had been an idle offense in their last chance. Taylor Fulton smacked a single to centerfield with one out, and Josey Greenwood followed up with an RBI double over the right fielder’s head to place herself as the tying run in scoring position. Frontier’s Kaycee Berentz battened down the hatches though with back-to-back strikeouts to send her Cougars to the OVAC 2A championship game.

“Our pitcher was pitching well,” Frontier head coach Eric Rinard said. “She has a lot of confidence, she knows what pitches to throw usually, and she can command her pitches really well.”

Berentz was effective in earning the complete-game win, striking out 16 batters with no walks and cruising through the first six innings before running into trouble in the seventh.

“We didn’t hit the ball right off the get-go,” Shadyside head coach Robert Gorrell said. “That pitcher did a great job, she pitched a great game, hit her spots. We’ve got to put the ball in play to get girls on-base. They got some girls on-base, and we gave up a run with an error right at the beginning and then we walked another one in. But they put the ball in play, that made the big difference in the game.”

Frontier’s defense and pitching was holding up their end of the bargain, but at the plate, the Cougars were leaving a lot of ducks on the pond, twice stranding loaded bases and coming away with one run in each situation.

In the bottom of the third, three singles from Gracie Mendenhall, Savannah Offenberger and Kate Congleton started the inning off to put Frontier in prime position to rack up runs.

But a fielder’s choice forceout at the plate put one down for Shadyside, and though an error in the infield allowed Offenberger to score, the Tigers straightened up and collected another forceout at the plate before pitcher Ariana Saxton induced a fly out leave the bases juiced for Frontier.

Saxton had 10 strikeouts for Shadyside.

In the bottom of the fifth, with bases loaded and two out, Evelynn Armstrong drew a walk to score Berentz and put Frontier up 2-0, but Shadyside third baseman Josey Greenwood ended the inning by securing a chopper and tagging out the runner between second and third, preventing too much damage from being done once again.

Frontier went deep into counts and displayed great patience at the plate, working for each of their two runs.

“Our girls, I told them after the game — we did a super job of working the pitches,” Rinard said.

“We were seeing the ball well tonight, we didn’t swing at hardly any bad ones, and we got ahead. We got good pitches to swing at and we capitalized on those.”

The Cougars will face Caldwell in the OVAC 2A championship game on Friday at 5 p.m.

“I’m ecstatic, I’m tickled to death,” Rinard said. “We did it last year in Class 1A, now we’re up to 2A and we’re able to come back this year. It’s pretty nice to be able to be back with this team and try it again.”