Waterford's MacKaylee Martin (7) slides safely into third base with a triple ahead of the tag of Fort Frye third baseman Jaden Cox (2) Friday night at Waterford Elementary School. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

By Mike Morrison

Sports Writer

WATERFORD – The first four innings of Friday night’s rivalry showdown between visiting Fort Frye and the Waterford Wildcats was a pretty good pitchers duel between Fort Frye’s Elle Casto and Waterford’s Zoey Smithberger.

Then all of the sudden the Fort Frye bats came to life and that was pretty much all she wrote.

Fort Frye scored four times in the fifth inning and four more times in the sixth to break the game wide open and then went on to down the Wildcats 10-3.

Fort Frye's Elle Casto delivers a pitch Friday night against the Fort Frye Cadets. Casto tossed a complete game to pick up the win as the Cadets rolled to a 10-3 win. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

The Cadets ended up collecting 14 base hits including 11 in the final four innings to snap a three-game losing streak and improve to 4-5 on the season.

“We played a little bit of small ball to get things going and then some of the girls that hadn’t been hitting really came through,” said Fort Frye head coach Brian Duskey. “Hopefully that’s a morale boost and we can get on a little roll.”

Casto allowed just one base hit and an unearned run over her first four innings while Smithberger allowed three hits and an unearned run in her first three innings in the circle.

Fort Frye took a 2-1 lead in the top of the fourth as Casto led off the inning with a single and pinch runner Evalynn Wagner eventually came into score on a base hit by catcher Maddie Hinton.

The Cadets finally began to solve Smithberger in the top of the fifth as with one out they strung together four consecutive base hits.

Waterford third baseman MacKaylee Martin steps on third for the force out Friday evening in the Wildcats 10-3 loss to Fort Frye. (Photo by Mike Morrison)

Shortstop Ella Dowler got the inning started with a single and after she moved into scoring position by stealing second she scored on a single by Madeline Morganstern.

Casto singled before third baseman Jaden Cox stroked a two-run double to the fence in left field to give the Fort a bit of breathing room.

Cox moved to third on an error and scored the fourth run of the inning on an infield groundout by Hinton.

Smithberger was removed from the game and replaced by Maggie Baldwin on the mound.

The Wildcats put a pair of runners on base in the last of the fifth but weren’t able to make a dent into the Cadet lead which was about to swell in the top of the sixth.

Cadet lead-off batter Faith Treadway led off the inning with a triple and came into score on a bunt single by second baseman Lexi Handshumacher.

Dowler’s second triple of the game plated another run and she also came into score on a Wildcat throwing error.

Morganstern walked and later came into score on a Wildcat wild pitch as the Cadets lead swelled to 10-1 heading to the final two Waterford at-bats.

The Wildcats did manage to pick up a pair of runs on a two-run double by Vada Stout in the bottom of the sixth but that would be the extent of their scoring.

Casto wasn’t overpowering by any means as she did not fan a single Waterford batter but she only walked one and forced the Lady Cats to put the ball into play and let her defense behind her do the rest.

“Ellie (Casto) is an absolute rock on the mound for us,” said Duskey of his ace pitcher. “She is just a spin-off of her big sister who was a great pitcher here, too.”

Treadway and Dowler led the Cadet offense with three hits apiece while eight of the nine starters in the Fort Frye lineup collected at least one base hit.

“(Faith) Treadway has been our solid rock all year and she leads the team in average and on base percentage,” said Duskey. “Ella (Dowler) has been in a little slump so this was just what she needed.”

Waterford collected five hits in the game including a double and single by MacKaylee Martin.

“We battled for the first several innings and hung right in there and then made some mistakes that they capitalized on,” said Waterford head coach Curry Ryan. “We helped them out a little and credit to them they took advantage and that was really the difference in the game.”

The loss dropped the Wildcats season mark to 1-6 but Ryan sees some promise for his young team to improve as the season goes along.

“I’m proud of the girls and how they are progressing,” said Ryan. “They are very coachable and I’m optimistic about the rest of the season.”

The Wildcats will travel to Morgan on Saturday for a double header while the Cadets have the rest of the weekend off before hosting Warren on Monday night.

“It’s always nice to be able to get a win against your rivals,” said Duskey. “We had a tough week coming into tonight so we needed this and we have another four-game week next week and hopefully we can get some W’s.”