Fort Frye's Grady Shuster celebrates with the dugout following a double during the Cadets' 8-3 win Thursday at Warren. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

VINCENT — Warren’s 3-1 lead after five went by the wayside here Thursday evening as Fort Frye rallied with a five-run top of the sixth en route to an 8-3 triumph and a season sweep of the Warriors, who fell 3-2 on April 1 in Beverly.

Although the Cadets struck first off losing pitcher Carter Strong (6.1 IP, 2 BB, 3 SO) thanks to a Grady Shuster two-out double in the second that led to a 1-0 cushion after Wade Duskey followed with an RBI single, the Warriors scored two unearned runs off Grady Hesson (6.2 IP, 3 BB, 7 SO) to take a 2-1 lead after four.

Jayce Hilverding opened the fourth by reaching on an error and Tate Jonas followed by working a free pass as cleanup hitter Haiden Strong sacrificed them over. After Hesson fanned Bo Jonas, Aiden Lipscomb delivered a two-run single back up the box.

Warren catcher Will Carte led off the fifth with a stand-up double inside the bag at third as courtesy runner Logan Wukelich raced home on Hilverding’s two-out knock to center.

However, a pair of Warrior errors led to the big sixth inning, which got started with a Wyatt Duskey leadoff single.

Warren shortstop Cody Eding makes a barehanded grab and throw to retire Fort Frye's Carter Brown during the Warriors' 8-3 setback Thursday. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Runners were on second and third after Kainan Bradford walked and stole second with one out. Clayton Tullius followed with a grounder into the hole at shortstop, which went for an error, as Shuster then delivered an RBI double. No. 8 hitter Carter Brown reached on a throwing error that allowed two runners to score and Caden Henniger made it 6-3 via his run-scoring two-bagger.

“I’ll tell you what man, these kids are resilient,” admitted FFHS head man Trey Engle. “I think we got a little bit of different things from different kids tonight and we got back on the right track a little bit and hopefully we got some confidence, especially with the lower part of our order.

“Grady Shuster, I mean we’ve kind of been waiting on that. We saw it and I’m glad he saw it tonight, so really good.”

Lipscomb had a one-out single in the sixth, but was left stranded at first.

Strong, who allowed a one-out double to Hesson in the seventh before Bradford was intentionally walked, was lifted in favor of Cody Eding. However, Eding was welcomed to the bump by a Tullius shot that nearly left the park, but hit high on the wall in left. The advantage moved to 8-3 when Shuster came through with an RBI groundout.

Fort Frye junior Grady Hesson came up a batter shy of a complete game effort during the Cadets' 8-3 win Thursday at Warren. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

“He’s going to be really good. Kudos to him. He did a really good job,” Engle said of the freshman righty Strong. “Our guys adjusted well. I tell you what man, that’s a good thing about a young kid is you watch him on the mound and you’re like ‘the kid might be a problem in a few years,’ but glad that it worked out the way it did obviously.

“Kudos to him on a good game pitching. (Grady was) begging me to stay in. That’s just who he is. I told him he had 14 pitches going into the (seventh) inning and it either works out or it doesn’t. We want you to finish it and he’s a competitor. He’s been great for us all year. I think that’s win number seven for him on the year so he’s got seven of our 11 wins. He’s good man.”

Warren leadoff man and center fielder Braylen Murray laced a one-out double to right-center in the seventh as Hilverding followed by drawing a base on balls. After Jonas flew out, Hesson ran out of pitches and Jack McCurdy retired Haiden Strong on a fly out to right field.

“Carter’s been consistent the entire season and you could make an argument, and statistically he’s our best pitcher, and he threw really well,” said WHS skipper Chad Porter. “For five solid innings we played probably our best baseball.

“We played against a really good pitcher, who we’ve struggled with in the past. Our gameplan, we were able to grind out at-bats and get better and better. For the majority of the baseball game we played really, really well.”

Warren's Tate Jonas slides safely into home during the Warriors' 8-3 setback Thursday to Fort Frye. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Fort Frye improved to 11-3 and appears to have the No. 2 seed locked up for the Ohio Valley Athletic Conference 3A tournament as the Cadets will have a home semifinal game on Monday.

Warren, which had the defensive gem of the affair when the then shortstop Eding made a barehanded grab behind the mound on the second-base side to rob Brown of an infield single in the second, slipped to 4-10.

“This has kind of been the story of our season,” admitted Porter. “If you go back and look at our boxscores there’s a lot of baseball games left on the table like this. It’s a process and we’ve got to figure out how to shut the door on people. That’s something we haven’t been good at. That falls on my shoulders to fix.

“We’re going to find a way to fix it because there are a lot of good things happening with this young team, and we’re not going to make an excuse that we’re young. We’re 14 games into the season and we like this bunch. Love these guys and we’ve got to keep grinding and find a way to shut the door. I think we’re really close and we’re going to get over the hump.”

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com

Fort Frye catcher Wyatt Duskey makes a throw to first following a strikeout on a wild pitch during the Cadets' 8-3 win Thursday at Warren. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Fort Frye 8, Warren 3

WP: Grady Hesson 6.2IP, 6H, 3R, 1ER, 3BB, 7SO

Jack McCurdy .1IP, 0H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 0SO

Warren's Will Carte laces a double just inside the bag at third during the fifth inning of the Warriors' 8-3 setback Thursday to Fort Frye. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

LP: Carter Strong 6.1IP, 6H, 8R, 5ER, 2BB, 3SO

Cody Eding .2IP, 1H, 0R, 0ER, 0BB, 0 SO

Fort Frye (11-3) hitting: McCurdy SB; Wyatt Duskey 1-4 R, 2 SB; Hesson 1-4 R, 2B; Kainan Bradford 2 R, SB; Clayton Tullius 1-4 R, 2B, 2 RBIs; Grady Shuster 2-4, 2 R, 2 2B, 2 RBIs; Wade Duskey 1-4 RBI; Carter Brown R; Caden Henniger 1-3, 2B, RBI

Warren (4-10) hitting: Braylen Murray 1-4, 2B; Jayce Hilverding 1-4 R, RBI; Tate Jonas R; Haiden Strong 1-3; Aiden Lipscomb 2-3, 2 RBIs; Will Carte 1-3, 2B; Logan Wukelich R

Next games: Jackson at Warren today; TBA at Fort Frye on Monday in OVAC semifinals.

The Fort Frye dugout looks on during the Cadets' 8-3 win Thursday at Warren. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Warren freshman Carter Strong pitched into the seventh inning during the Warriors' 8-3 setback Thursday to Fort Frye. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Fort Frye second baseman Carter Brown makes a throw to first during the Cadets' 8-3 win Thursday at Warren. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)

Warren center fielder Braylen Murray makes a catch during the Warriors' 8-3 setback Thursday to Fort Frye. (Photo by Jay W. Bennett)