MT. CARMEL, Ill. -- As far as pitcher Jacob Frost was concerned, Thursday was the start of a new baseball season for Wabash Valley.
"We always think we are 0-0 to start the season," said the sophomore lefthander from St. Louis. "We are making sure we get our wins in, keep attacking and take care of business."
The new season is the NJCAA national tournament. And Opening Day was at home at Fournier Field in the first round of the Region 24A tournament.
Frost picked up the win on the mound as the Warriors defeated Frontier, 12-3, to advance to a winner's bracket matchup against Lake Land on Saturday at 12:30 p.m. CDT. Counting the "old" season record along with the new, third-ranked WVC improved to 47-10 on the season and 4-0 versus the Bobcats.
Lake Land won the other game played on Thursday, defeating Lincoln Trail, 10-2, a team it had not beaten during the regular season.
Frontier slipped into the loser's bracket with a 25-26 overall record. The Bobcats will face Lincoln Trail at 9:30 a.m. CDT Friday in the first elimination game of the tourney.
Frost, now 8-2, worked five innings for the win, striking out eight batters, walking three, and allowing only three hits in a 91-pitch performance. His teammates staked him to an early 9-0 lead, so when he struggled in the middle inning, reinforcements were on the way from the bullpen.
"(Frost) ran into a little trouble in the fifth," said Wabash Valley manager Aaron Biddle. "We got him out, and Maddox (Pennington) gave us an inning, then (Aidan) Deakins came in and got us out of a big spot in the seventh."
Nick Williams made sure the game did not go past the seventh when he belted a 2-run home run to walk off what ended as a nine-run win.
Williams, who was 3-for-4 on the day with four runs batted in, leads the club in all three Triple Crown categories: .471 batting average, 12 homers, and 79 RBIs (the latter number the sixth-best in NJCAA Division I).
Designated hitter Bruce Jellison put the Warriors on the board in the first inning with an RBI base hit against Frontier starter Zach Leduc, who was named the NJCAA Division I Pitcher of the Week for last week. The hosts added two more runs in the second on the first two RBIs of the day from Williams.
Then, a six-run outburst in the third put WVC out of reach. The first four batters reached, including Daniel Contreras who made it 4-0 when he was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded. Jon Legrande followed with a sacrifice fly, and Richard Bonomolo, Jr. Later added a 2-run single, and it was 9-0.
Mack Mitchell joined Williams with three hits for the winners. Jellison finished with two. Next to Williams in the RBI count came Bonomolo with two.
Winning the first-round game in a double-elimination setting such as this is ultra-important, according to Biddle.
"It is huge," he said. "You go from having to win four or five games if you lose the first one, to an opportunity to play (only) three if you win through. It saves (pitchers) arms and gives you a better chance."
Biddle made a bit of personal history as well by winning his first-ever post-season game. He is in his first year at the helm following seven years as an assistant to Hall of Fame coach Rob Fournier, now an assistant at Western Kentucky.
All games in the tournament are being streamed live, with Warrior games staffed with announcers. You can view the streams here: