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Washington County Challenge slated for Saturday

MIKE MORRISON The Marietta Times Fort Frye’s Tyler Bradford throws a pitch during last year’s Washington County Challenge. Bradford and the Cadets open the 2018 season Saturday at Frontier.

NEW MATAMORAS — Frontier and Belpre will be the host sites Saturday for the third annual Washington County Baseball Classic which pits all six Washington County baseball teams against one another to open the 2018 season.

Weather permitting, Frontier will play host to both Waterford and conference rival Fort Frye, while Belpre will welcome the Warren Warriors and the Marietta Tigers.

It will be the first time both Belpre and Frontier have hosted the event and Cougars third-year head coach Kurt Satterfield is excited to get the chance to stay home for this year’s event.

“We have spent a lot of time and work improving our field,” said Satterfield. “We have redone the area by the outfield fence and have really manicured the infield. We are proud of it and want to show it off a little bit.”

The Cougars, who went 17-12 last season and captured a Division IV sectional championship for the second consecutive year will open the season at 11 a.m. when they play host to a Doug Huffman-led Waterford team that figures to be very good once again after making back-to-back appearances in the D-IV regional tournament.

After Waterford and Fort Frye renew their rivalry for the first time in a long time at a neutral site at 1:30, the Cougars will host Fort Frye in what will serve as the Pioneer Valley Conference opener for both schools.

Fort Frye went 20-5 a season ago, capturing PVC and Ohio Valley Athletic Conference championships along the way as well as a Sectional title of their own.

It will be interesting to see which team Fort Frye head coach Sonny Bidwell elects to pitch All-Ohio left-hander Tyler Bradford against, if either.

Last season Bradford posted a 9-1 record with an 0.98 earned run average.

Frontier would like nothing more than to get a win over Fort Frye but will do all it can to beat Waterford first.

“We play Waterford first and we are going to do everything in our power to win that game,” said Satterfield. “We have been ahead of Fort Frye so many times only to lose in the later innings so hopefully we can get over the hump this year.”

Belpre will host a very young Warren team in its opener with the rivalry game between Marietta and Warren to follow.

Both the Tigers and the Warriors are coming off stellar campaigns last season as Marietta went 24-4 and claimed a Division II district championship while Warren (17-10) fell one game short of joining them in the Sweet 16.

Both teams also lost the nucleus of their team to graduation as Marietta lost 10 seniors and Warren eight.

“We are young but we have high hopes and our kids have been working hard all winter long,” said first-year MHS head coach Josh McKitrick, who takes over for the retired Jim Thrash. “It’s rare when you graduate 10 seniors but it opens up a great opportunity for a lot of kids and they have responded very well.”

Despite a 9-18 record a season ago, the Terry Mullen-coached Golden Eagles likely will put the most experienced team on the field as they host Warren in the opener and the Tigers in the night cap.

Marietta comes in as two-time defending champions of the tourney and would like nothing more than to make it a three-peat.

“The pressure is definitely on us because we have won it the first two years,” said McKitrick. “Coach (Ryan) Lemley lost a lot of kids too but you know they are going to be better than people think. We are definitely motivated.”

Proceeds from the annual event go to benefit ALS (Amyotrophic Lateral Sclerosis), also known as “Lou Gehrig’s Disease.”

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