Dulaney starting pitcher Carter Frick found major trouble early in Thursday’s clash with rival Perry Hall, but after seven innings, the right-handed walked off the mound unscathed.

The Gators loaded the bases with one out on a pair of singles by Ryan Bruce and Cameron Cooke to go along with a hit batter, but Frick induced a 4-6-3 double play to end the inning and never looked back, leading the surging Lions to a 5-0 victory through a 10-strikeout, complete-game effort.

“I had a rough first inning, found [my fastball],” said Frick, who also singled in a run in the first inning. “Slider, curveball were all working. Fastball in the zone, down and away, definitely, to most of their hitters, was getting roll-overs and swings and misses. I just trusted the defense to get me out of there with a ground ball to second.”

Frick’s counterpart, Gavin Raynor, was not as lucky as the Lions struck for all the runs they would need in the bottom of the second before adding three more in the sixth to essentially put the game away and push Dulaney’s record to 7-3.

“[Frick] knows a lot of those Perry Hall guys, playing with them in the past kind of thing,” Lions coach Zach McElroy said. “I told him the best thing you can do is not throw how they are expecting you to throw. Just be your best self, and after that first inning, he kind of went back to the spin a little bit more than throwing heavy fastballs. It was a fantastic outing.

“We’re just finding our identity. We’re still trying to find the right pieces to fit in the right spots. We’re just trying to get right for the stretch run.”

After Frick’s Houdini act in the top of the first inning, Matthew Rich started Dulaney’s two-run burst in the bottom of the inning with a single to left-center field. He stole second, reached third on a groundout and then scored on a wild pitch in the dirt. Two batters later, Frick singled to left field to bring home Will Chantelau, who singled and stole second to get into scoring position.

Frick and Raynor dominated the next four innings, especially Frick, who struck out six during the span and worked out of two-out, two-on situations in the top of the sixth and seventh innings. Dulaney responded offensively once again with three runs in the sixth on running-scoring singles by Caleb Lamont and Logan Park, as well as an error on Park’s infield single for the final 5-0 lead.

With two out in the inning, Dylan Townsend singled to right field. Following a wild pitch that put Townsend’s pinch runner, Patrick Brayton, at third base, Lamont roped a single to right field for a 3-0 advantage. Matthew Stolz followed with a single, and both he and Lamont scored on Park’s dribbler to the right side of the infield. Park beat out the throw to first to score Lamont while Stolz reached home as the ball was bobbled and then dropped at first base in another example of very aggressive baserunning by the Lions, who finished with five stolen bases.

The loss dropped the Panthers, who entered the 2025 campaign with lofty expectations, to 2-6. A lack of depth has plagued Perry Hall, which received a pair of hits in three at-bats by shortstop Cooke.

“We’re down to like 11 players [Thursday], which is tough, especially if we play tomorrow, we have four games this week,” Perry Hall coach Joe Carlineo said. “Pitching and stuff like that, it makes it a little harder for you. I keep telling these guys, it’s all about the end. Things happen. You learn from it. Hopefully, by the end of the season, we’re in the thick of things. Hats off to them; they beat us.”

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