Franklin’s Major League baseball All-Stars are district champs.
Starting June 23, the area’s best 10-12-year-old players traveled to Brevard for the N.C. District 5 Tournament, locking horns with seven other teams from across WNC. In capturing the district title, Franklin advanced to the state tournament later this month.
Following their first three games in Brevard, Franklin hosted the championship round versus Blue Ridge June 30, which draws players from Clay, Graham, Cherokee and Polk (TN) counties. Already with one loss in the double-elimination tourney, Blue Ridge needed to beat the undefeated home team to stay alive.
Blue Ridge drew first blood at Parker Meadows, scoring one run in the second and two in the third for an early lead.
Franklin answered in the bottom of the fourth, exploding for six hits including triples from Knox Holbrooks and Rowen Keener. A rare inside-the-park home run from Ryker Stiles gave Franklin its fifth run of the inning.
Blue Ridge stayed hot in the top of the fifth however, plating three more runs to retake the lead 6-5. The visitors held Franklin scoreless through two more frames to hang on for the narrow win.
With one loss apiece to their names, both teams reconvened at Parker Meadows the following night for the deciding game.
Once again Blue Ridge came out swinging in the rematch, scoring the game’s first three runs in the top of the first. Franklin responded in the next frame however, plating five of their own with two singles, two doubles, a hit batsman and two wild pitches. They tacked on another run in the third to extend their lead to 6-3.
The home team’s bats stayed red-hot from there, turning three singles, a Kason Phillips double and a sacrifice fly into three runs in the fourth. They scored four more in the fifth by way of a single, a hit batsman, a walk and RBI doubles by Easton Green and Jackson Mason, extending their lead to 13-3 and ending the game on the spot via the 10-run rule.
“I’m just very proud of them,” said head coach Jody Mason after the game. “They’ve worked very hard … They’re a great group to coach.”
With the District 5 title in hand, the team turned their attention to the state tournament, planning a trip to Kernersville July 18-24.