Panthers finish 1st in Mountain Seven with comeback win over West Henderson
Panther softball are champions of the Mountain Seven.
On the last week of the regular season Franklin had less than two games left to play, including a critical showdown with second-place West Henderson. With a thrilling comeback win the Panthers proved they’re the class of the conference, ahead of the start of the state playoffs Tuesday, May 6.
After suspending their game with North Henderson due to weather April 23, on Monday, April 28, they welcomed the Knights back to Macon Middle School.
Having trailed their conference rivals 6-0 through two innings, North’s offense came out swinging in the third, turning three singles into their first run of the game. Pitcher Suzanna Cabe stayed cool under pressure however, retiring North’s last batter with the bases loaded.
Both offenses were held in check for the next two innings, until Layla Maloy led off the Panther fifth with a walk. After stealing second and advancing to third on an error, the sophomore scored on a Makayla Pendergrass single. Cabe protected Franklin’s 7-1 lead to the end, finishing with a 10-strikeout complete game. Kendall Rumans led all Panthers at the plate with a second-inning three-run homer.
“I was hoping we’d hit a little bit better today, but it’s Monday and you’re trying to finish up a game that you’re halfway through, and we were hitting that girl really good the other day here, so maybe it just wasn’t meant to be,” said head coach Bobby Bishop after the game. “But we played well, and only gave up one run to them and a few hits, so we did all right.”
In beating North, the Panthers improved their conference record to 10-1, just ahead of 9-1 West. The result set the stage for a de facto conference title game, a rematch of Franklin’s 10-4 home win March 28.
“Well hopefully we’ll hit the ball, because we’re gonna have to score some runs,” said Bishop of the trip to West. “I mean, I could be wrong – you never know – but they’ve been on a tear here lately scoring runs. They’ve been scoring eight, nine, 10, 11, 12 runs a game pretty much since we beat them, so I just hope we hit the ball, play good defense and do what we’re supposed to. They’re a good team; they’ve lost one game all year and it was to us, so hopefully they’ll lose two games all year and both of them will be to us.”
The next night, the Panthers traveled to Hendersonville for their regular-season finale. While the game wasn’t quite the offensive shootout Bishop expected, it did treat fans to a dramatic, back-and-forth matchup.
“Talk about a barnburner – that was probably one of the tightest games I’ve been a part of in a long time,” said Bishop. “It was just a well-played game, and everything about it was a great game to be in, as long as you were on the winning end. I honestly thought that it would be a little bit more high-scoring than what it was, but Suzanna was really on and the pitcher for them was really on, and it was just pretty much play great defense and try to rummage up a run or two here and there.”
Behind seven more innings of seven-strikeout ball from Cabe, Franklin engaged in a defensive struggle throughout, scoring one run in the second but falling behind 2-1 after four. After two more scoreless innings in the fifth and sixth, Franklin’s offense saved their best for last.
“We come up in the top of the seventh, it’s still 2-1, and Layla led off with a double,” said Bishop. “Makayla Pendergrass hit a sharp line drive groundball between first and second, but the second baseman made a really good play and threw her out. So, we had one out and Layla moved to third, and I thought, ‘Well, all we need is a groundball.’ I think Meliah [Mason] took the first pitch, and the next pitch she hit over the right-center field wall.”
Needing only to drive Maloy in to extend the game, Mason did that and then some, belting a go-ahead two-run homer just over the wall. After defending their lead in the bottom of the inning, Franklin improved to 17-5 overall, and clinched a Mountain Seven Conference title at 11-1. Having battled the Falcons for conference supremacy in each of the last three years, Bishop said his players were glad to finally get over the hump.
“They were pretty ecstatic, and I think us as coaches were, too,” he said. “I was really relieved – I don’t think I slept a wink the night before, thinking of all the different scenarios of what we could do and what we had to do, and it just worked out perfect. I couldn’t ask them to do much more than what they did, and it was just a really well-played game.”
Having secured the conference title, the Panthers turned their attention to the state playoffs, ending the regular season as the 8th-ranked team in the 3A West Region. As of press time May 5, they were still waiting to learn their first-round playoff opponent for a home game to be played the next day.