BROOKSIDE – One bad inning muzzled the Bulldogs Tuesday afternoon.

Frontier exploded for nine runs in the opening frame en route to an 11-1 five-inning win over Bridgeport at cold and windy Perkins Field.

The win evened the Cougars’ mark at 1-1 on the campaign, after an opening-season loss to Toronto. Bridgeport is now 0-2, falling to River on Monday.

Frontier’s first-inning explosion was fueled by five hits, two base on balls, two beaned batters, six stolen bases and one error.

The nine-run outburst made life easy for Frontier starting pitcher Noah West. The senior right-hander was pulled after three perfect innings of work. He fanned five in that span.

Classmate Lucas Cox worked the fourth and fifth frames. He fanned three, issued no walks while surrendering two hits.

“I told Noah on the ride up that if things got out of hand early in our favor that I might pull him early regardless of how well he was pitching. He had no problem with that,” Frontier head coach Kurt Satterfield said. “Noah did pitch very well but I wanted to save him for Monroe Central Thursday. He only threw 38 pitches tonight. Lucas is also a quality pitcher and he was solid tonight.”

Cox delivered a two-run single in the first inning while Tice Curtis, Clay Weber and True King all produced run-scoring hits. Trey Cunningham also recorded an RBI via a bases-loaded walk.

Frontier pushed across two more runs in the fifth to move the game into mercy-rule mode. Curtis stroked an RBI single while Cox line a run-scoring double.

Bridgeport needed two runs in the home-half of the fifth to elongate the game but mustered just one.

Senior Gary Widmor opened the frame with the Bulldogs’ first hit of the game. He moved to third on an A.J. Gear single and eventually scored on an RBI groundout off the bat of Nate Galownia.

“We got off to a great start but our bats went sort of quiet after that. Our lineup is not real deep.” Satterfield said. “I am happy with how we bounced back from our Toronto game. We just need to get more guys hitting, but it is still early.”

Promising freshman Jaki Threet went the distance on the mound for Coach Billy Timko’s charges. After the first inning, he acquitted himself very well.

Threet yielded 10 hits. He struck out four and walked just two.

“The first inning killed us again. It did last night (Monday) against River and again tonight,” Timko said. “Jake pitched well after the first inning. He really settled into a groove.

“We need to do a better job of hitting. Two hits doesn’t get it done,” he continued. “We are a young team. We only have two seniors on the team. We are a work in progress.”

Bridgeport will play host to River this afternoon.