Frontier’s Grace Arnold celebrates while rounding third after hitting a ninth-inning solo home run in the Cougars’ 1-0 win over Fort Frye Wednesday in Beverly. (Photo by Beth Smith)

BEVERLY — Fort Frye head softball coach Brian Duskey summed up Wednesday’s home affair with Frontier in a single word — heartbreak.

Cadet freshman Elle Casto threw a gem, but was one-upped by Cougar senior Kaycee Berentz as the right-handers hooked up in a pitcher’s duel that wasn’t settled until Frontier cleanup hitter Grace Arnold blasted a solo bomb to left for the only run of the affair in the top of the ninth.

“She’s pretty good,” Frontier first-year head coach Samantha Livingston said of Casto. “We just kept nicking it and were just missing it. She did her job. That’s for sure.

“They made some fantastic plays. They really did. Lots of credit to them. They made some great plays. Our senior first baseman came through for us. She was due. She’s been working hard. It’s beautiful.”

Fort Frye, which dropped to 5-5 and plays today at Point Pleasant, got a two-out single from cleanup hitter Jayden Brown in the ninth, but Berentz completed her six-hit shutout that featured zero walks by recording her 17th punchout when she got Jayden Cox looking to end it.

Fort Frye’s Elle Casto delivers a pitch during a high school softball game against Frontier Wednesday in Beverly. (Photo by Beth Smith)

“One mistake in nine innings. I’ll take that out of a freshman,” admitted coach Duskey. “It’s a lot of pressure. Nobody likes being on the losing end of that, but hats off to Frontier. She’s a good pitcher and has a lot of nice pitches. She’s elusive.

“She’s just hard to hit, but it’s nothing speed-wise we haven’t seen. Everything else she brings, it’s the different pitches she has. It does suck. I’m proud of the girls. You don’t make any errors and still come up short. It’s heartbreaking, but someone has to come up on that end. It just happened to be us today.”

Berentz, who helped the Cougars claim last year’s Ohio Valley Athletic Conference 1A title, struck out the side in the first but got into trouble with two away in the second. FFHS center fielder Ella Dowler smoked a shot into the right-center field gap, but had to settle for a double after tripping when she went around second base. No. 7 hitter Taylor Hendershot followed with an infield single, but Berentz fanned Maddie Hinton to escape the jam.

Fort Frye catcher and three-hole hitter Denay Layton ripped a single into right field to lead off the fourth, but Berentz proceeded to strike out the side.

Hendershot opened the last of the fifth with an infield single, but when Hinton struck out Cougar catcher Alexis Livingston fired the ball to Arnold at first for a double play.

Cadet leadoff hitter Carmen Henniger started the sixth with a single to left, but Emmie Duskey’s bunt turned into a 5-3-6 double play.

In the last of the eighth for the Cadets, Henniger reached on a two-out error and stole second, but then tried to advance to third when the ball went into center field. The Cougars got out of it with a 2-8-5 putout as Kate Congleton fired a strike to Evie Armstrong at third.

Frontier, which improved to 12-0 and plays today at Shadyside, went just 1 for 3 with runners in scoring position while the Cadets were 1 for 2.

FHS No. 9 hitter Gracie Mendenhall, who was robbed of a hit in the third when Brown snow-coned her shot at the hot corner, had a two-out single in the fifth and stole second, but was left stranded.

“She’s dominant. She works hard in everything she does, but she’s beautiful to watch. I mean it’s great pitching. Great movement,” coach Livingston said of Berentz. “This team has been fantastic. I’ve had so much fun this year. These girls will listen to anything I tell them. They work hard. They are a fantastic group. They are just great and I love them. They will give me everything, anything, 100% all the time.

“It doesn’t matter what I ask. Sometimes they’ve got to think I’m crazy, but they do it anyhow and we just keep going. It’s teamwork. Even when we made our mistakes today someone was there to pick it up and throw it and we got an out anyhow. It’s 100% the team. All 15 of my girls are behind each other.”

Casto allowed seven hits, the one earned run and issued one free pass with seven strikeouts.

Contact Jay Bennett at jbennett@newsandsentinel.com