High school baseball: Cross out duels Froelich to carry Belleville Henderson to baseball win

May 4—CHAUMONT — In a showdown for first place with rival Lyme, Belleville Henderson's Brittan Cross showed plenty of resolve in delivering a victory.

Cross admittedly wasn't at his best at the start, but bore down to record a dominating performance to back the Panthers to a 5-1 triumph over the Lakers on Saturday to prevail in a Frontier League "D" Division game at Lyme Central School.

Cross fired a two-hitter, striking out 15 and issuing just a pair of walks to record the win for Belleville Henderson as he out dueled Lyme's Evan Froelich.

"It felt amazing," Cross, a senior righthander, said of the win.

With the win, the Panthers improved to 7-2 on the season, including 7-1 in the league, to take over sole possession of first place in the division.

"I thought Britt did a masterful job on the mound," Belleville Henderson coach Paul Gibbs said. "He really settled down after that first inning and pitched well."

Lyme (7-2) got to Cross early for its only run by scoring an unearned run in the bottom of the first inning as Alex Radley drew a leadoff walk and scored on a single by Jonny LaFontaine.

"We started the way we wanted to, but we ended up hurting ourselves with the throwing errors, a couple mental mistakes and we hurt ourselves," Lyme coach Kyle Bronson said. "We lost our center fielder in the game and those sort of things hurt."

But Cross worked out of further trouble with a strikeout and received a ground out to end the inning.

"I had to battle a little bit," Cross said. "They hit the ball, I mean they're a good hitting team, you can't stop them from hitting."

"He recovered well after the first inning," Panthers senior shortstop Brandon Dodge said of Cross. "We had trust in him to get the job done."

Cross went on to strike out the side in the second inning and also did so in the third, working his way out of a jam with runners on first and third base.

"I was just throwing as hard as I can, just trying to get it in there, especially working with my slider and everything, too," Cross said. "It's worked a lot this year, and this game, too."

Cross helped his cause in the top of the third as after Brandon Dodge hit a leadoff double to left field, Cross tripled even deeper into left to score the tying run. One batter later, Cross scored the go-ahead run on a bloop single from Kadon Nolder to build a 2-1 lead.

"It was great," Cross said. "As soon as I saw that we got that lead, I knew it, It was like 'it's over, I'm going to close this game and we're going to win it.' And finally we beat them twice in a row for the year, because each year, we beat them once and they beat us. It's been a split all the time, ever since my sophomore year, so it's really nice to get this one."

Froelich would strike out the next two batters to avoid further damage, but the Panthers would not trail again.

Belleville Henderson scratched out a run in the fifth as Dodge reached on an error, advanced to second and third base on two wild pitches and scored when Cross struck out, but scored on a dropped third strike when Lyme chose to throw the ball to first base.

The Lakers threatened in the sixth inning as their leadoff batter was hit by a pitch and after Derek Radley reached on an error, Jake Little singled to short right field, but second baseman Brady Mooney, covering on the play, threw out the lead runner at the plate, with Cross making the tag.

"That was huge play at the plate, that can kind of take the steam out of you," Gibbs said.

"We had opportunities, we had that pop fly which was exactly what we wanted, a miscommunication there," Bronson said. "The overthrows, throwing the ball away, those things they all hurt and against good teams like that, they make you pay."

The Panthers added two runs in the seventh as Ty Disbro drew a leadoff walk and scored when Cross reached when an outfield dropped the ball, with Cross later scoring on a wild pitch.

"It feels great, everything fell into place," Dodge said. "Britt did his job on the mound and the bats got the job done, it just feels good."

Lyme, which came into the game leading the division by one-half game over Belleville Henderson, also didn't help its cause by committing five errors.

Froelich allowed four hits, struck out 14 and walked only two in being dealt the loss for the Lakers.

"He's a good pitcher," Dodge said of Froelich. "His curveball's nice, his fastball's obviously got heat on it, so it was nice to get the job done today."

"I think Cross, I think that him and Evan really are the top guys in the north country," Bronson said. "You could see, the speed is so different than everybody else we face. So it's really a black and white situation where we're getting used to one speed and then it really cranks up for this game in particular. And it's the same thing for those guys, they got to prepare just like we've got to prepare."

The win was extra sweet for Cross since it's first time Belleville Henderson has beaten Lyme twice in a season since he's played varsity baseball.

"Beating Lyme twice is huge, it's really good for us for the Frontier League," Cross said.

The Panthers also bounced back with the win after being dealt their first league loss of the season on Friday in a 10-3 home setback to South Lewis.

"Sometimes it takes a loss to see the end of the tunnel and fight harder I think today we did that," Gibbs said.

Belleville Henderson, which won the division last year en route to reaching a sectional final, has five league games left in the regular season.

"I'm really proud of my boys," Cross added. "They're doing good, they're young and to be honest we're

better than last year's team."

"It feels great," Dodge said. "They are our rivals, they've been our baseball rivals for three or four years, even before I came to varsity and it just feels good."

Meanwhile, the Lakers, who won the previous two division titles, have four league games left before the Frontier League playoffs.

Lyme had won seven straight games, including a 12-11 win over LaFargeville on Friday, since dropping a 5-4 decision in eight innings at Belleville Henderson on April 1 in the season opener for both teams.

"The outlook for the season is still good, we still have our heads up high," Bronson said. "We still think we're going to do pretty well in Section 3, but we know it's a good competition between us and them. It's turned into a rivalry, especially between Cross and Froelich."