SHORT GAP, W.Va. — No. 2 Frankfort trailed Keyser 3-0 midway through the fifth inning.
The Falcons (9-6) rallied in the bottom of the inning, nearly batting around twice to complete a 12-3 comeback victory on Monday.
“First couple innings, we were getting out on our front side hitting,” Frankfort manager Matt Miller said. “Too many pop-ups, our bodies weren’t connected with our arms through our swings. When we finally started doing that, we started hitting the ball hard. They gave us some free bases, we took advantage of that in the fifth.”
In the bottom of the fifth, Frankfort sent 16 batters to the plate and the Falcons scored 11 runs on five hits, six walks and two errors.
“We had our inning, just like we had last week over at Hampshire,” Keyser skipper Scott Rohrbaugh said. “It was just one of those innings that gave us outs, and we didn’t take it. They had some walks, possibly could’ve switched pitchers sooner. But you look at the opportunities to get outs, and we didn’t.”
Lanson Orndorf (Charleston commit) drove in two runs on a ground ball single to right.
Blake Jacobs (Charleston) doubled over the left fielder for a run while Gunnar Bradshaw drove in one on a knock to right.
Rhett Sensabaugh drew two walks in the inning while Jacobs, Jaxon Hare, Jesus Perdew, Cole Shanholtz and Braeden Laffey each worked one.
“We had a lot of success last week being aggressive at the plate,” Miller said. “Once we started hitting the ball hard, we were gonna be aggressive all day. That’s our game plan right now, and it finally came through in the fifth. I was fine with the aggressiveness at the plate, I just wasn’t happy with reaching for balls and not staying back and driving pitches.”
Jacobs added a run in the sixth on a grounder to left and finished 2 for 4 with three RBIs.
The Golden Tornado (4-11) scored in the first on a double play, then added two in the top of the fifth.
With two on, Lucas Williamson hit a two-run double up the middle.
“We’re just getting better hitting,” Rohrbaugh said. “We’re working hard at it and guys are settling in, seeing more pitches. It’s just later in the year, so we’re getting better. We’re not a great hitting team, but we’re getting better every day.”
Hare went the distance, allowing two earned runs on nine hits with no walks and six punchouts.
“Our pitching’s been really good, Jaxon’s really good today,” Miller said. “Efficient, which is very helpful because having three complete games over the weekend, we didn’t have a whole lot of depth on the mound tonight. For him to go the entire distance really helps us out.”
Zeke Eye held Frankfort to one hit and two walks through four innings.
His final line was four earned runs on a hit and six walks with two strikeouts across 4 1/3 innings.
“He really didn’t run out of gas, because his velocity didn’t change,” Rohrbaugh said. “He just lost control, but we didn’t play defense behind him when he still gave us opportunities to get outs, we just didn’t get outs.”
Keyser out-hit Frankfort, 9-7, but committed seven errors.
Both teams play on Wednesday.
The Golden Tornado heads to No. 1 Northern (7-4) at 3:30 p.m. while the Falcons host Berkeley Springs at 7 p.m.
“This group, they know they can explode at any time,” Miller said. “We’ve been very battle-tested with the schedule the last three years. These kids have started a lot of baseball games. They knew they just gotta hold the course and keep playing and that does give us some confidence. Just because we’re in a hole doesn’t mean we can’t dig ourselves out.”