Photo/ANDREW GRIMM LINSLY’S Alex Taylor delivers to the plate during Friday’s OVAC Class 3A championship game against Fort Frye.

RICHMOND — Winning the OVAC title is an annual goal for Linsly, and for the 23rd time in program history, the Cadets checked that box on Friday at the Edison Unified Sports Complex.

Linsly scored two runs in each the second, third and fourth to open a lead and tacked on three more in the top of the seventh to pull away from top-seed Fort Frye, handing them just their third loss to win the Class 3A title, 9-4.

“We knew it was going to be a fight,” Linsly head coach Jay Cartwright said. “(Fort Frye) is always well coached, they’re going to compete. They’re an outstanding baseball team … We’re really pleased with this one, we did a lot of things well. We had some big hits, we did some things well on the bases.

“I tell these kids all the time I’ve coached them harder because I know how good they can be and I think they showed it.”

Trey Prather had a big day at the plate, crushing a homer in the third inning and also knocking an RBI double, while Matt Scouvart drove in three runs on the day and Jax Murray had a pair of doubles.

Alex Taylor went six strong on the mound for Cartwright’s club, firing seven strikeouts against three walks before his pitch count forced his departure.

“Alex was tough as nails,” Cartwright said. “Things didn’t come easy for him, he got out of some jams and just kept coming.”

Fort Frye committed some costly mistakes, being charged with three errors while just four of Linsly’s runs went in the scorebook as earned.

“We just made too many mistakes,” Fort Frye head coach Trey Engle said. “It’s hard to beat a good, well-coached team like Linsly when you have that many errors and five hits.

“Congrats to them.”

Fort Frye’s Carter Booker tripled in a run and Matthias Kesselring and Owen Brown each tallied RBIs. Clay Gruey tallied five strikeouts in 6 2/3 before being lifted in the seventh.