Frankfort comeback stuns Fairmont Senior

May 21—SHORT GAP, W.Va. — Trailing 5-1 in the bottom of the sixth, Frankfort was six outs away from an 0-1 deficit in the Class AA, Region I best-of-three finals.

The Falcons (19-8) had other plans, rallying in the sixth to come all the way back, stunning Fairmont Senior 12-6 in the series opener on Monday.

"Seeing him for a third time was big for us," Frankfort head coach Matt Miller said of Fairmont Senior's starter Sammy Viani. "He did a really nice job keeping us off balance. The third time through, we started attacking good pitches. We swung at some non-competitive pitches earlier in the game and got ourselves down in counts. The sixth inning, we got good counts, started hitting fastball's like we're capable of hitting."

In the bottom of the sixth, Frankfort loaded the bases with no outs.

Jacob Nething drew a four-pitch walk to cut the deficit to 5-2.

On the next play, it appeared that Uriah Cutter grounded into a double play.

However, the umpires met and reversed the call, keeping the bases loaded.

This was seemingly the break the Falcons needed to open the floodgates.

"We made one mistake, and we seemingly dwelled on it," Fairmont Senior head coach David Ricer said."We've told them all year, you gotta be resilient when something like that happens. The one thing is don't let the wheels fall off, we blew them off."

Jaxon Hare was hit by a pitch to make it 5-4, then on the next pitch, Jesus Perdew sent a line drive to center to tie the game at 5 on an RBI single.

Rhett Sensabaugh hit a sacrifice fly to put Frankfort up 6-5.

After a fielding error at shortstop, the Falcons batted around.

Lanson Orndorf was hit by a pitch to open the inning. In his second at-bat of the frame, he sent a fly ball over the left fielder's head for a three-run double.

"We just locked in and hit fastballs," Orndorf said. "Gotta get on his fastball, his curveball's pretty good."

Blake Jacobs then hit a fly to left, scoring one while the second runner was tagged out at home.

Cam Lynch took ball four then Nething's second at-bat of the inning led to an infield single to third.

Jacobs scored on a passed ball, then Cutter hit a pop fly to right for a hit, driving in two runs. He was tagged at second to end the inning.

The Falcons sent 14 up to bat resulting in six hits, two walks, two hit batters and two reaching on errors.

"We had three blown double play opportunities in that inning," Ricer said. "We were cruising defensively and offensively to that point, after that it was done."

The Polar Bears (21-8) added a run in the seventh on a groundout.

Fairmont Senior only had one runner in the first two innings, but put two on in the top of the third.

Dylan Ours hit a grounder to third that was bobbled, driving in a run.

Ours stole second, then Brock Martin hit a line drive to right center for two RBIs to put the Polar Bears up 3-0.

In the top of the fourth, Fairmont Senior added a run on a Hayden Jones RBI single past the shortstop.

Three batters later, Cameron Peschi hit a line drive RBI single to left to push the Polar Bear lead up to 5-0.

The Falcons cut it to 5-1 in the fourth on a sacrifice fly from Cutter.

Through five innings, Viani was cruising.

He had only allowed four baserunners through the first five frames, resulting in one run, two hits and two walks with a pair of strikeouts.

However, everything that could've gone wrong did in the sixth.

His final line was 5 2/3 innings, seven hits, 12 runs (five earned) and four walks with two strikeouts.

Peschl led the Polar Bears with two hits, an RBI and a stolen base.

Orndorf went the distance, throwing 110 pitches.

He allowed five hits, five earned runs and three walks with six strikeouts.

Outside of the third and fourth innings when Fairmont Senior scored its runs, Orndorf only allowed two baserunners in the other five innings.

"I found my changeup, I got control of my slider and that just changed it all," Orndorf said of what helped him to settle in. "They had to get on the other pitches, they didn't just sit on the fastball."

Jacobs led the Falcons with three hits and an RBI.

Jordan Kendall is a Sports Writer for the Cumberland Times-News. Email him with scores and story suggestions at jkendall@times-news.com.

Jordan Kendall is a Sports Writer for the Cumberland Times-News. Email him with scores and story suggestions at jkendall@times-news.com.