FRONTENAC — Humboldt High’s baseball team ran into some tough pitching to open the 2024 season Monday.
Frontenac’s Bryant Kitchen and Abram Frankenberry limited the Cubs to four singles in a 6-0 victory on a blustery afternoon.
“We made a couple of errors, a few balls found holes that probably shouldn’t have and they took advantage of them,” Humboldt head coach Mike Miller said. “They made some nice defensive plays that really kept us from getting anything going offensively.”
The Cubs twice put multiple runners on base, but could not score on either occasion.
Meanwhile, the Raiders’ slow-but-steady offensive approach was enough to secure the victory. Frontenac started things with a leadoff triple against Humboldt starter Logan Page.
Page narrowly missed getting out of the jam. He struck out the next two batters, but a fielding error on a short pop-up scored the run for a 1-0 lead.
An error and infield single led the way to two more runs in the bottom of the second. Page scattered four hits over two innings of work with five strikeouts.
Sam Hull came on in relief to pitch the rest of the way. He allowed five hits over four innings with four strikeouts.
“Frontenac has a tough lineup from top to bottom,” Miller said. “Logan and Sam both did a great job of attacking the strike zone.”
Hull and Page collected two of the Cubs’ four hits, along with Blake Ellis and Cole Mathes.
“It’s early and we’ve got some guys that haven’t got it going yet at the plate but it will come,” Miller said.
HUMBOLDT’S junior varsity also fell, 15-7.
Mason Sterling, Carson Russell, Garren Goodner, Jacob Harrington and Grady Elder had singles for Humboldt’s JV.
Russell, Avery Works, Asher Hart and Elder shared pitching duties, striking out three and allowing five hits.
“Carson had the start. He struggled a little with his command but really settled in as the inning went on and did some nice things,” Miller said. “All the pitchers in the JV game did some good things. It’s just about getting more work and finding that consistency. Much like the varsity game, we struggled at the plate in the middle innings to get anything going after jumping out to an early lead. In the last inning we put some nice at bats together and finished strong.”
