It was a whirlwind week for FHS softball.
After surviving a scare from East Henderson to earn a fifth-place ranking in the state 2A classification, on the week of April 26 the Lady Panthers geared up for their final two games of the 2021 regular season. In matchups with Mountain Six Conference rivals Pisgah and Smoky Mountain, Franklin followed up a disappointing loss with a thrilling extra-inning win over the top-ranked 2A team in the state.
On Tuesday, April 27, the Lady Panthers travelled to Canton for a game with the Pisgah Black Bears. The game was quiet in the early innings, with the Panthers scoring the game’s only run through the first five innings. In the sixth inning Franklin added another, and appeared to put the game on ice with a four-run outburst in the seventh. In the bottom half of the frame though, Pisgah’s bats seemed to flip a switch.
“We were up six to nothing, and I was probably was as bad as the girls were, but I think we just thought we had it won,” said head coach Bobby Bishop. “We had played great defense up to that point, but in the last inning we just made a couple of mental errors. Of all things, they had hardly hit a ball into the outfield all day, and the girl comes up and hit a grand slam with two outs. It was one of those where Kandice [Parker] reaches up and it goes about that far over the top of her glove. We had lots of opportunities earlier in the game to score some runs, and we just didn’t.”
Despite Pisgah’s walk-off grand slam giving the Black Bears an unexpected victory, Franklin had little time to dwell on the loss. Two days later on April 29, the Panthers travelled to Webster for their biggest game of the season, a clash with the Smoky Mountain Mustangs.
As two of the top 2A teams in the state – both squads have hovered in or near the top 10 of official state statistics website MaxPreps’ rankings all season – Panther faithful had circled Thursday’s Mountain Six Conference game on their calendars long before the teams met at the old Webster High School field. With state playoff seeding on the line in this year’s COVID-shortened postseason tournament, the fates of the 1st-ranked Mustangs’ and 5th-ranked Panthers’ seasons hung in the balance.
With roughly 200 people on hand to witness the rematch of Smoky’s narrow 3-2 win at Macon Middle School two weeks prior, the two archrivals took the field on a gray afternoon that just seemed to hold rain showers at bay. The game started poorly for the Panthers, when after a 1-2-3 Panther first Smoky Mountain knocked a pair of singles to put runners on first and second with one out. When the Mustangs hit a high fly ball on the next at-bat, Franklin was unable to connect on the throw back to the infield, and Smoky’s lead runner crossed the plate for a 1-0 lead. Senior pitcher Deaven Lombard stopped the bleeding however, and the Panthers escaped the inning down by just a run.
After a quick second inning, Franklin’s bats heated up in the third with a Parker triple that fell just in front of the Mustang right fielder’s glove. Senior second baseman Nevaeh Tran brought Parker home with a sacrifice fly two batters later, and Franklin ended the inning in a 1-1 tie.
The Mustangs struck again in the bottom of the inning, stringing two singles and a double together to plate a run with one out and runners still on second and third. Lombard again pitched her way out of the jam however, getting two quick groundouts to strand the runners in scoring position.
After two quiet innings in the fourth and fifth, the Panthers were in dire need of a run as the game entered the final two innings. With two gone already and just four outs standing between Franklin and another one-run loss, senior shortstop and NC State Wolfpack commit Taylor Ensley delivered in a single pitch, belting a solo homer to right field to knot the game at 2-2. In the bottom of the inning, the senior made a great defensive play to collect a fast-moving Smoky groundball and throw to Tran at second base for a tag-out. Lombard then got two more outs to send the game to the seventh.
Following a quiet Panther seventh, Smoky Mountain made a last-ditch effort to prevent extra innings, getting a one-out single and a subsequent grounder to put two runners on with two outs. After a base on balls loaded the bags for the Mustangs, both teams’ fans sat on the edge of their seats as the game’s outcome rested on the next at-bat. Lombard escaped yet another jam though, forcing a groundball right into Ensley’s glove to send the game into the eight inning.
With momentum on their side following Ensley’s home run and Lombard’s escape from the seventh-inning jam, Franklin’s bats came alive in the eighth. In the leadoff spot, Parker knocked a groundball for an apparent single and took off toward first base. As the senior neared the bag, Smoky Mountain sent an errant throw to the first baseman and allowed Parker to slide into second. On a wild pitch to sophomore pinch-hitter Tessa Dehart on the next at-bat, Parker advanced to third with no outs recorded in the inning. Just one batter later, Tran placed a bloop single perfectly in front of Smoky’s outfielders, bringing Parker home while Tran herself stood on first. On the next at bat, senior outfielder Rylee Corbin blew the game wide open with a two-run blast to right-center field, giving Franklin a 5-2 lead and sending its small delegation of fans into a frenzy. Ensley tried to keep the inning going with a well-placed triple on the next at-bat, but the Mustangs forced two more outs to end the inning down three runs.
With the wind taken out of their sails, Smoky Mountain couldn’t generate any offense in the bottom of the frame, hitting into two quick groundouts and an infield popup to end the game. After Ensley caught the can of corn for the final out, Panther players jumped over the low outfield wall to celebrate with star outfielder Mckenzie Redoutey, who was watching from the crowd after tearing ligaments in her knee in the two teams’ first meeting on April 13. Players could be heard singing “We are Family”, the 1979 disco/R&B smash hit by Sister Sledge.
Due to Franklin’s losses to Pisgah and to Smoky Mountain earlier this season, the Mustangs finish the season in first place in the Mountain Six despite the Panthers’ win in Webster. While this year’s playoff formatting allows only one automatic berth from conferences with six or less teams, Bishop was hopeful
“The girls battled today, and they made up the difference,” he said. “I’m so proud of them I don’t even know what to say about it other than ‘Go Lady Panthers’.”