BEVERLY – Fort Frye starting pitcher Grady Hesson came into Thursday evening’s D-6 district semi-final against the Caldwell Redskins sporting an incredible 0.39 earned run average on the season.

The only way the Cadet junior could lower that minuscule ERA would be to shut out the Caldwell Redskins for the third time this season and that is exactly what the Fort Frye ace did as he scattered five base hits and the Cadets blanked Caldwell 6-0 to advance to the district championship game.

Hesson had shut out the Redskins at home and away in the regular season on games that were decided in the final inning and he was at it again Thursday as he walked just one batter and fanned 14 to improve his record to 13-0.

“Everything felt good tonight and I had a good defense behind me,” said Hesson. “I knew if I threw strikes and they were going to hit it that the guys would back me up and make plays.”

All told in the three games against Caldwell, Hesson fired 23 shutout innings while fanning nearly 40 Redskin batters.

“Grady (Hesson) has been a blessing on the bump all year long and I can’t say enough about the job he did again tonight,” said Fort Frye head coach Trey Engle. “I know there was a lot of emotions going into this game and the kids played well and got us to exactly where we want to be.”

Caldwell threatened to break through off of Hesson in the opening frame as second baseman Cam Sidwell led the game off with a double.

Sidwell would not advance at all though as Hesson fanned the next three Caldwell hitters to keep them off the board.

The Cadets would not miss their first inning opportunity off of Caldwell starter Jake Laswell as with one-out Hesson singled and stole second.

One out later designated hitter Grady Shuster came through in a big way when he tripled to straight away center field to easily score Hesson with the game’s first run.

The Cadets added another run in the bottom of the second inning when with one out second baseman Carter Brown walked and stole second, moved to third on a base hit by shortstop Wade Duskey and scored on a perfectly executed safety squeeze by catcher Caden Henniger.

Hesson allowed base hits to Guiler Preston and Silas Cain in the second and third innings respectively but fanned seven over the first three innings to keep the ‘Skins from cashing in.

Fort Frye made it a 3-0 ballgame in the bottom of the third inning and once again Hesson helped himself with the bat and on the bases.

With one out Hesson singled, moved to second on a wild pitch, to third on a passed ball before scoring on yet another wild pitch to give the Fort a three-run lead.

That lead would double in the bottom of the fourth as the Cadets scored three times to give Hesson more than enough run support to last the rest of the game.

All the damage came from the bottom three hitters in the Cadet lineup as they strung together three consecutive singles.

Brown got things going with a single and moved to second on Duskey’s second hit of the game.

Both runners moved into scoring position on yet another wild pitch before Henniger grounded a ball past a drawn-in Caldwell infield and down the right field line to score both Brown and Duskey.

Henniger got the start behind the dish after regular Fort Frye catcher Wyatt Duskey enlisted in the armed forces shortly after graduating this week.

“He (Henniger) did a solid job behind the plate and came through big for us at the plate,” said Engle. “He’s been swinging the bat well in practice so we kind of expected that and I’m happy for him.”

Hesson felt like Henniger did more than a respectable job behind the dish in such a high-pressure game.

“We will definitely miss Wyatt (Duskey) but Caden (Henniger) went back there and did a really good job,” said Hesson. “He worked his butt off and he is going to do a really good job back there I know.”

Henniger would eventually score the final Cadet run of the game on a wild pitch to increase the lead to 6-0.

The six runs was more than enough for Hesson who fanned at least two batters in every single inning he pitched except the last one.

Hesson got a nifty double play by his defense in the final inning as after Preston singled, Jonah Moracco grounded the ball hard to shortstop and the Cadets turned a 6-4-3 double play to kill the rally.

Hesson then got the final out of the game to bring an end to the Redskins’ season and punch the Cadets’ (21-5) ticket to the district final tonight at Ridgewood High School against top-seeded Berlin Hiland.

“Getting this far was the goal from the beginning and we’ve got a huge game left and hopefully we can get there,” said Engle. “I can’t say enough good things about these kids. They are resilient and they have been all year. We are really in a good place. It’s going to take a lot of team baseball and these guys are willing to do it for each other.”

Eliminating Caldwell was perhaps a bit bittersweet for the Cadets as many of them were teammates last year with several Redskin players who joined forces to capture an American Legion state championship for Beverly/Lowell Post 389/750.

Engle was quite pleased with the great turnout of fans who showed up for the Cadets’ final home game of the season and his final home game as head coach before moving onto Shenandoah to serve as Athletic Director.

“I want to shout out to our crowd because our crowd was unbelievable,” said Engle. “I’ve never seen anything like that on the Fort Frye baseball field and I was really glad the kids got to play in front of a crowd like that.”

The Redskins’ season ends with an 11-11 record and will be the final game for seniors Moracco, Preston, Kyler Starr and Connor Barnes.

OHSAA Division VI, District Semifinal

FFHS 111 300 X — 6-8-1

WP: Grady Hesson: 7IP, 5H, BB, 14 SO

LP: Jake Laswell4.2 IP. 8H, 6R, 5ER, 2BB, 3SO

Kyler Starr: 1.1 IP, 2SO.

Caldwell (11-11) hitting: Guiler Preston 2-3, Cam Sidwell 1-3, 2B, Kyler Starr 1-3, Silas Cain 1-2.

Fort Frye (21-5) hitting: Grady Hesson 2-4, 2R, Wade Duskey 2-3, R, Grady Shuster 1-2, RBI, 3B, Carter Brown 1-1, 2R, Chatum Courson 1-3, Caden Henniger 1-2, R, 3RBI.

Next Game: Fort Frye vs Berlin Hiland, 5 p.m. today ay Ridgewood (District Final)