In shutout wins over Clymer/Sherman/Panama, Cassadaga Valley and Chautauqua Lake, both the offense and defense have shown up for the Bears.

Frewsburg scored five runs in the bottom of the first against Maple Grove on Wednesday and it looked like the Bears were off to another runaway victory.

The Red Dragons punched back and outscored Frewsburg in the remaining six innings, but the damage had already been done for a 9-5 Chautauqua-Cattaraugus Athletic Association Division 2 victory at the Robert H. Jackson Sports Complex.

“It’s been working out well for us, coming out on fire,” Frewsburg head coach Eric Haglund said about the offense. “We hit some really hard balls at the beginning. Very high wind today killed those balls right down; typical day those definitely would have been in the gap.”

Frewsburg’s Trent Lewis throws across the diamond during Wednesday’s CCAA Division 2 game against Maple Grove at the Robert H. Jackson Sports Complex in Frewsburg. P-J photo by Christian Storms

Garrett Brink got things started with a one-out infield single and was promptly brought home by a Maddox Sheesley RBI double. Sheesley was one-upped by Harrison Eckert two batters later when he roped a two-run triple down the right field line that scored both Sheesley and Mason Eckman to go up 3-0.

The inning continued to get worse for the Red Dragons (8-6, 6-5) when Daniel Peterson knocked in Eckert with an RBI single and then made his way home by stealing second and taking third thanks to a failed pickoff attempt before scoring on a wild pitch.

After the rough first inning, Maple Grove had just one more bad inning when Frewsburg plated another three runs in the third to go up 8-1. Eckman and Peterson scored for the second time, while Vincent Sanfillipo also reached home.

“Frewsburg is a really good team, but I think we’ve got a really good team too,” Maple Grove head coach Cory Falkowski said.

“They jumped out on us really quickly, five runs in the first inning,” Falkowski added. “If we clean up some of those mistakes and they don’t get those five runs, it’s a completely different game. We just have to find a way to play the whole game and we’re starting to trend in that direction.”

Maple Grove chipped away at the Frewsburg (17-0, 11-0) lead and being aggressive on the basepaths helped cut the deficit. Camden Lombardo scored the first run for the Red Dragons after an infield single in the third. He then stole two bases before scoring on a wild pitch.

Jake Reinhart went with the same formula in the fourth, singling and stealing a pair of bases before Nathan Cornell knocked him home to make it 8-2.

“The aggressiveness is what we want to try and build our team around,” Falkowski said about the baserunning. “We try to get really big leads, push the limits. I tell the kids if you’re getting back to the bag standing up your lead is not big enough and we’ve got some fast kids on this team so I want to take advantage of that.”

Despite trailing by six runs to the top team in the league, Maple Grove kept it positive. A lot of that positivity came from the boisterous Kolden McCall. Continuously rallying his teammates, McCall also got the job done with his bat in the fifth inning he drilled his second double of the game, stole third base and raced home after a failed pickoff attempt.

“Kolden is awesome,” Falkowski said. “He’s the first one in, he’s the last one to leave. He always wants to talk to me after practice about stuff that he thinks we could be doing; he’s just a leader of men. He’s always full of energy, you don’t have to worry about him being down and even if he makes a mistake I know he’s going to correct it very quickly and if someone else makes a mistake he’s not going to get on them he’s going to be a true leader and help them.”

Frewsburg got that run back in the bottom half of the inning when Peterson scored for the third time, this time after walking and stealing both second and third, then reaching home on a wild pitch.

Maple Grove scored twice in the top of the sixth. This time, Sean Verbosky reached third on an error in right field and scored on another wild pitch. Cornell then reached again via walk and stole second before being knocked home by Kyle Yohe to make it 9-5.

“We just try to keep mentally straight,” Haglund said about holding off teams. “We just try to play Frewsburg baseball and do the best we can honestly.”

Even with Maple Grove inching back into the game, the Frewsburg pitching had the game in good hands as the Red Dragons struggled to string together hits.

“Pitching has been going really well,” Haglund added. “We’re hitting our spots, starting off with a lot of strikes. We don’t walk very many guys which is nice for us. These guys put in a lot of offseason time and a lot of work and it’s paying off this season.”

Brink and Sheesley combined for eight strikeouts on the mound with Brink taking the win. Reinhart took the loss on the hill for Maple Grove.