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Brookover, Morris lead Frontier past Fort Frye

BEVERLY – Lexi Brookover was a perfect 4 for 4 at the plate, including a solo home run, while Sammi Morris pitched a complete game to lead Frontier past Fort Frye, 6-2, Monday.

The Cougars (10-4) used the long ball twice to take leads over the Cadets (3-9). Brookover yanked a solo shot over the left field fence in the top of the first to make it 1-0.

After the Cadets tied it at 1-all in their half of the opening frame, Frontier’s Kenzi Smith untied it with a solo bomb to right-center in the top of the third. Frontier added three more runs in the third to take a 5-1 lead, and the Russ Morris-coached ball club controlled the game from there.

“We came through with some big hits there,” Russ Morris said. “Lexi and McKenzi’s home runs were big, but we had some other big hits from other kids. It was just a total team effort.”

After Jada Baker’s sacrifice flyout plated Chelsey Snodgrass to tie the game at 1-1, Smith’s first homer of the season in the third made it 2-1 in Frontier’s favor.

That hit seemed to spark the Cougars. Later in the inning, with runners at second and third with two outs, Kylie Daugherty smacked a two-run double to left-center to make it 4-1. Daugherty came around to score on Nikki Haught’s double to left, putting Frontier up four.

Fort Frye got one of those runs back in the bottom half of the third. With Mikaela Dyar at second, Snodgrass grounded to second base, but the throw to first was dropped, allowing Dyar to score and make it 5-2. The Cadets later had runners at second and third with nobody out, but Morris struck out back-to-back batters before Izzy Rinard made a nice play on a fly ball to right field to end the inning.

“We had about three innings there where we had an error to start out each inning,” Russ Morris recalled. “We very well could have buckled and given up more runs than we did but I thought our defense held strong and I thought Sam did a nice job on the mound.”

Missed opportunities were the story of the game for Fort Frye, which returns home today against Monroe Central.

“We just didn’t get a key hit when we needed a key hit,” said Fort Frye head coach Stacy Fleming. “We left too many base-runners on the bases. We’ve been doing that a lot. We’ve just not been able to get that key hit to get us over the hump.”

The Cougars scored their sixth run in the top of the seventh.

The rally began with Curtis getting hit by a pitch followed by Brookover’s fourth hit of the game, a single to center. After reaching third, Curtis would come in to score on a wild pitch.

Brookover finished with three singles and a home run, her fifth of the season.

“She has hit the ball excellent this year,” Morris said. “She’s hit several home runs but her goal is just to get the bat on the ball. She’s a strong enough kid, if she hits it square, it’s going somewhere.

“She’s swung the bat real well.”

The Cougars play host to Caldwell Wednesday.

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