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Wheeling Central’s Frizzell Continues Dominant Stretch vs. Cadets

By NICK HENTHORN 4 min read

WHEELING - It's been a week packed full of backwards K's for Wheeling Central pitcher Josie Frizzell, who pitched for the third day in a row Wednesday against Linsly.

After picking up a win and collecting double-digit strikeouts Monday against Monroe Central, and punching out 16 in a no-hit effort vs. Barnesville on Tuesday, Frizzell tallied a dozen more strikeouts for the Knights in a 2-0 victory over the visiting Linsly Cadets on Wednesday at the J.B. Chambers I-470 Complex.

"When she throws strikes, we play better," Wheeling Central head coach Buck Davidson said. "It's just nice to have someone you can count on. Both of my pitchers throw a lot of strikes, I'm lucky in that respect. Josie, she just always seems to come through when she has to."

Central struck for two runs in the bottom of the first inning, but neither run came via conventional means.

With runners on the corners, an error on a throw allowed Brook Edge to score and put Central ahead 1-0. Then, later on, with runners on the corners and two outs, the runner on first got caught in a rundown between first and second- but managed to evade a tag until the runner from third had scored, putting a second run on the board before inning's end.

Neither team got much going the rest of the way. Frizzell's counterpart inside the pitching circle, Madison Applegarth, also had a good day, tallying two K's and no walks, scattering six hits across six innings.

Opportunistic baserunning gave the Maroon Knights enough offense to secure a win, but outside of the chaos of the first inning, Central felt they are still searching to get back in-stride at the plate.

"The past three days we haven't hit the ball the way we had been normally," Davidson said. "We hit the ball hard today but it always seemed like it was right at somebody. You've got to give Linsly credit, they made a lot of plays today and kept us from scoring much."

Linsly had their best shot in their last opportunity, loading the bases in-between two strikeouts via singles from Sophia Monk and Applegarth and a walk issued to Reagan Van Syoc. With two outs, Frizzell punched out one last batter to end the game in a high-pressure spot.

The Cadets managed to come within one big swing of a change of fortunes, but by and large, Linsly was not very satisfied with their at-bats Wednesday.

"[Frizzell] threw a nice game, she's a good pitcher," Linsly head coach Paul Recrosio said. "I'm not going to take anything away from her effort, but we made her job easy today. Up until the last inning, where we had two of our three hits, we had three baserunners and we put some pressure on them, but that was the only inning of the game that we did that.

"We made her job a lot easier with a lack of discipline at the plate, chasing pitches out of the zone, and that's where we've got to get better. You're not going to win games scoring zero runs. But my hat's off to them, she's a very good pitcher, and the best part is we get to see them again in eight or nine days."

Gia Recrosio tallied the only other hit for Linsly.

Bella Rine, Erin Maxwell and Frizzell each had multiple hits for Central, all singles.

Wheeling Central travels to Oak Glen on Thursday. Linsly travels to face Clay-Battelle that same day.

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