The Frankfort baseball team is off to a hot start in 2024 as they began the season last week by scoring an average of 15 runs per game while only allowing 5 defensively. To say the season has started well for the Wildcats may be an understatement.
It didn’t come easy at first. In their opening series against Onaga, Frankfort got up 4-1 early in the third with some strategic baserunning and capitalizing on an error from the Buffaloes. Onaga would answer back in the bottom of the inning and do it in a big way with a 5 run bottom of the 4th highlighted by a Jackson Kolterman 3 run home run.
Frankfort took the lead back thanks to RBI hits from Jett Keller and Peyton Adams, Adams hit scoring a pair. The back and forth would continue in this terrific game, Onaga added 6 runs in the bottom of the 5th but unfortunately for the Buffaloes that would be their final charge in this game as Carter Olson slammed the door with 2.2 scoreless innings and Frankfort would put the finishing touches on their first win of the season with a 4 run inning, the final runs coming via a daring Ty Smith steal of home plate to put the punctuation on a 15-13 Wildcat win.
Game 2 of the doubleheader saw the Wildcats lead from the beginning. Out to a 6 run lead after 2 ½ Onaga mounted a bit of a rally in the bottom of the 3rd inning with Hunter Lamond leading the charge with a 2 run double, Lamond would come around to take home plate on an error by Frankfort catcher Henry Ketter cutting the lead in half and trailing 6-3 at the end of 3 innings.
But from there it was Pitcher Lane Loiseau in full control going 4 innings and allowing 2 runs and striking out 4. The Frankfort offense backed Loiseau for the rest of the game just as well as they did in game 1. Scoring 7 unanswered runs and ending the game via the run rule in the 5th inning taking the game 13-3.
Frankfort continued their offensive dominance in their 2nd series of the year as they took on Blue Valley. In game 1, Eli Morton pitched 3 innings of 1 hit ball and Lane Loiseau proved that he is big with the bat as well with 3 hits and tying for the team lead in RBI with Trent Hardin each earning 3. In total, Frankfort took game1 with a remarkable 17-0 win.
In Game 2 it was Brock Armstrong who brought the big bat to the park driving in 5 runs on 3 hits. This time for the Wildcats the explosive inning came in the 5th with 9 runs highlighted by a Lane Loiseau triple scoring two and Armstrong earning two hits in the inning plating an additional 2 runs.
Blue Valley was able to get on the board thanks to Trevor Clark’s 2 RBI hit in the 3rd and again in the 4th with hits from Landon Schreiber and Landon Schmitz in the 4th, but it wasn’t enough as Frankfort would earn their 2nd series sweep, taking down Blue Valley in game 2, 16-4.
Next up for Frankfort will be a road trip to take on the Hiawatha Redhawks today. The Blue Valley boys next take the diamond tomorrow March 26th against Valley Heights.
