Parkersburg South’s Eli Davis (2) scores a run as Fort Frye catcher Wyatt Duskey awaits a throw during Friday’s game in Beverly. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

BEVERLY — Every high school baseball team hopes to be playing their best ball at the end of the season with tournament baseball just around the corner.

The Fort Frye Cadets have played pretty good baseball all season long but may well be saving their best for last after downing the visiting Parkersburg South Patriots 7-3 Friday night to notch their fifth consecutive win.

The win over South was the fourth in six days for the Cadets and completed the season sweep over the Patriots.

“We were a little short-handed tonight because we sent our JV team to St. Clairsville,” said Fort Frye head coach Trey Engle. “We only had 12 guys and all 12 guys got in the game and contributed so it was a great team win and I’m really proud of them.”

South missed a golden opportunity to dent the plate first as their first two hitters of the game reached base only to be left stranded by Cadet starting pitcher Jack McCurdy.

Fort Frye had a similar opportunity in their half of the first and came through by putting a two spot on the board against South starting pitcher Eli Davis.

McCurdy got things going with a single and one out later first baseman Kainan Bradford was hit by a pitch.

A single by Grady Shuster and a fielder’s choice by Clayton Tullius got the two runs across and staked the Cadets to the early lead.

The Cadets took advantage of a Patriot error in the second inning as Wade Duskey reached on an error, moved to third base on back-to-back bunt singles by Wyatt Duskey and McCurdy and came into score on an infield groundout off the bat of Grady Hesson.

South head coach Bryan Youngblood felt like his team’s inability to handle the small ball approach taken by the Cadets was pivotal in the result of the game.

“Fort Frye did their job and they small-balled us to death and we kicked the ball around a little,” said Youngblood. “Usually when a team is putting down a bunt they are giving up an out but we didn’t seize the opportunities to get those outs.”

Lead-off batter CJ McCartney got the Patriots on the board leading off the third inning when he homered over the fence in left field.

Davis followed by drawing a walk and came all the way around to score from first when Logan Graham doubled to cut the deficit to 3-2.

The Cadets went quietly in the third inning but got the two runs back in the bottom of the fourth and once again small ball played a huge part in their success.

Carter Brown led off the inning by reaching on a fielding error and moved to third base on back-to-back sacrifice bunts by Ty Worthington and Wyatt Duskey.

McCurdy singled for the third time in four innings to score the first run of the inning and Hesson followed with an RBI single to increase the Cadet lead to 5-2.

Worthington came on in relief of McCurdy with two outs in the fourth inning and got the final out and then tossed two more innings for the Cadets allowing just one unearned run.

“I haven’t pitched Jack enough this year because he is such a good center fielder but he did a great job tonight,” said Engle. “Ty (Worthington) has kind of been a go to guy all season long for us and he continued to do his job like he has.”

The Cadet offense added two more insurance runs in the bottom of the fifth to increase their lead to four.

Tullius and left fielder Chatam Courson walked to begin the inning and after a sacrifice bunt by Brown, Worthington singled in Tullius.

With Courson on third base and Worthington on first the Cadets pulled off a nifty double steal that allowed Courson to touch home plate with the seventh run of the game.

Worthington gave way to Wade Duskey for the final frame and he allowed a two-out base hit to Graham before getting Peyton West to fly out to left field to end the game.

McCurdy allowed three hits and a pair of earned runs to pick up the win while Davis took the loss for the Patriots.

The loss was the 19th of the season for the young Patriots compared to just eight wins.

“We lost 11 seniors from last year and we are young and inexperienced,” said Youngblood. “A lot of these guys don’t have a lot of varsity experience and sometimes it shows and other times it doesn’t.”

Fort Frye improves to 16-5 on the season with a tough test on the agenda weather permitting Saturday as the Barnesville Shamrocks are scheduled to visit.

“It’s been awhile since we were able to sweep them (South) and I don’t know if I’ve ever done it during my tenure so that’s big for us,” said Engle. “This is a fun group and they are just a bunch of goofballs who like each other and are the reason we are having such a great season.”

South will travel to Warren Saturday to take on the Warriors.

Fort Frye 7, Parkersburg South 3

PSHS 002 010 0 — 3 4 3

FFHS 210 220 x — 7 9 3

WP: Jack McCurdy 3.2IP, 3H, 2ER, 3BB, SO

Ty Worthington 2.1 IP, R, 0ER, BB

Wade Duskey IP

LP: Eli Davis 4IP, 6H, 5R, 2ER, BB, SO

Peyton West 2IP, 3H, 2ER, 2BB, SO

Parkersburg South (8-19) hitting: Logan Graham 2-4, RBI, 2B; CJ McCartney 1-3, R, RBI, HR, Bronson Linville 1-3, Eli Davis 0-3, 2R.

Fort Frye (16-5) hitting: Jack McCurdy 3-4, 2R, RBI, Grady Shuster 2-4, Grady Hesson 1-4, 2RBI, Clayton Tullius 1-3, R, Ty Worthington 1-1, RBI, Wyatt Duskey 1-2.

Next Games: Saturday, Barnesville at Fort Frye, Parkersburg South at Warren.