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Frontier sweeps Shenandoah on diamond

NEW MATAMORAS – Frontier pounded out 12 base hits and recovered from a near disastrous fifth inning as the Cougars scored an 18-13 Pioneer Valley Conference victory over the visiting Shenandoah Zeps Wednesday night.

The Cougars were threatening to mercy the Zeps as they carried an 11-1 lead into the fifth inning before Shenandoah came off the mat to score eight times and trim the Frontier lead to just two.

Frontier went right back to work in its half of the fifth as it scored five runs of its own to once again put some distance between itself and the Zeps.

Norman Hunt, Brent West and Damon Metheney each collected run-scoring base hits in the fifth inning for the Cougars, who also took advantage of three errors by the Shenandoah defense.

“We have been hitting the ball really well all season, we just are having trouble defensively,” said first-year Frontier head coach Kurt Satterfield. “Our bats are our best defense right now.”

West started the game on the mound for the Cougars and gained the win by tossing four solid innings before turning the ball over to Reese Amos, Wyatt Smitley and Zach Cunningham, with the latter striking out the side in the final inning to bring the marathon game to an end.

Cunningham led the Cougar offense with a pair of doubles while Ben Webber, Smitley and West pounded out two hits apiece.

Shenandoah got a pair of hits by sophomore Austin McPeek including a two-run double in the eight-run fifth.

Shenandoah slipped to 1-7 with the loss while the Cougars crept to within one game of the .500 mark with the win at 3-4.

“I think we are just a little bit afraid to win sometimes,” joked Satterfield of his young Cougars, who finish a suspended game against Buckeye Trail today before playing a regulary scheduled game. “Last year we lost a lot and I just don’t think we know how to put a game away quite yet.”

SOFTBALL

Sammi Morris tossed a three-hit shutout and Lexi Brookover singled, doubled and tripled as the Frontier Lady Cougars downed Shenandoah, 4-0.

The game was quite a pitcher’s duel between Morris and Shenandoah starter Jenna Cowgill, who fanned 11 Cougar hitters in her six innings of work.

The game was scoreless into the bottom of the third before the Cougars scored three unearned runs off of Cowgill.

With one out Cala Curtis reached base on an error and advanced to second on a base hit by Brookover.

Cowgill got what seemed to be a big second out of the inning when she got Morris to fly out to centerfield, but third baseman Kylie Daugherty came up with a clutch two-out, two-run triple to deep right field to give the Cougars a 2-0 lead.

Shortstop Nikki Haught plated Daugherty with a run scoring single for the third Cougar run of the inning.

Shenandoah missed a big opportunity in the fifth when they loaded the bases all on base on balls before Morris retired Cowgill on a come-backer to the mound to maintain the three-run lead.

The Lady Cougars got an insurance run in the fifth on a Brookover triple and an infield groundout by Morris.

Morris walked five and struck out five for the Cougars, who improved to 6-3 with the win while Cowgill surrendered just six hits to take the loss for the 2-5 Zeps.

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