photo by: Nick Henthorn

Martins Ferry’s Maddie Lucas fires a pitch against the Fort Frye Cadets during the teams’ OVAC semifinals matchup on Tuesday at the I-470 J.B. Chambers Sports Complex.

WHEELING – As the saying goes, it was close- until it wasn’t.

No. 1 Martins Ferry scored five runs in the bottom of the sixth to run away with a 10-2 victory over No. 4 Fort Frye in the OVAC Class 3A tournament semifinals Tuesday at the I-470 J.B. Chambers Sports Complex.

Giana Chirpas smashed a solo home run in the fourth and finished with three RBI and Maddie Lucas pitched a complete game with 11 strikeouts to highlight Ferry’s advancement to the OVAC 3A Championship.

Ferry first got on the board in the bottom of the first inning, Danielle Lude and Abbey Snedeker scoring on an error in the outfield.

Fort Frye loaded the bases with nobody out in the top of the fourth. Lucas struck out a batter to put one out on the board, but the Cadets did score on a fielder’s choice. Carmen Henniger drew a bases-loaded walk to plate another run and tie the game, but Lucas worked out of the jam from there with no further damage.

It didn’t take long before Ferry capitalized on another mistake to take the lead again- Sam Goddard and Savannah Koller scoring on a similar play as the first inning, a misplayed ball in the outfield.

Chirpas put up Ferry’s first earned run in emphatic style, lifting a ball just inside the foul pole in left field for a solo shot which put the Purple Rider up three, 5-2.

Fort Frye stranded a pair of baserunners in the top of the fifth, as leaving meat on the bone had become an unfortunate trend for the Cadets on Tuesday.

Ferry piled on with five more in the sixth- Koller, Lude and Snedeker each recorded RBI knocks, and Chirpas had a two-RBI single to left.

Balls that were pulled foul against inside pitches early in the game became RBI hits and home runs by the end of it for Ferry.

“It took us awhile to adjust to that pitcher,” Martins Ferry head coach Jerry Magistro said. “She kept us off-balance and everything, but finally once we got her timing down we started hitting good. I thought it was a team win.”

“Everybody hit the ball pretty hard, we did good on our fielding and defensive stuff, pitcher did what she had to do and got us out of a lot of tough situations, she pitched well. A lot of the young kids and the older ones did a great job hitting the ball today, getting timely hits when people were on base.”

Martins Ferry will face Wheeling Central, who bested Barnesville earlier in the day, for the conference title.

“Fort Frye played a really good game,” Magistro said. “They’ve got some good hitters, they play pretty good defense and I take my hat off to them because I thought they did well.”