Panther softball is heating back up at the right time.
Entering the last five games of the season, Franklin stood at 10th in the 3A West rankings, with another busy week of contests on deck. In Mountain Seven wins over North Henderson and Smoky Mountain, they set the stage for a massive showdown with West Henderson for the conference title.
Just six days after falling 5-4 in extra innings at North, on April 24 Franklin rematched the Knights at Macon Middle School. There North seemed headed for a series sweep early on, plating two first-inning runs by way of two doubles and a triple.
The Panthers answered in the bottom of the inning however, leading off the frame with an Ashlyn McConnell double and a Kendall Rumans walk. Senior Avery Moffitt then changed the game with a single swing, blasting a first-pitch three-run homer to left-center field.
Franklin kept up their barrage in the second, loading the bases with a Layla Maloy single and walks from McConnell and Rumans. After Moffitt reached first on an error to score Maloy, senior Meyaeh Tran dealt North a body blow, clearing the bases with a hard-hit single to make it 7-2. Franklin went on to win 11-2.
The next night, the team returned to MMS for a non-conference meeting with Murphy. In a rematch of Franklin’s 8-3 win March 11 in Cherokee County, the Panthers saw their “revenge game” role reversed from the previous night, finding themselves down 8-6 midway through the sixth inning of an offensive shootout.
After bouncing a home run off the right field foul pole earlier in the game, senior Laura Holland sparked Franklin’s offense in the next frame, reaching base and advancing to third on a wild pitch. On the next at-bat Maloy drove Holland in with a double, then scored herself on a game-tying single from McConnell.
Franklin kept their foot on the gas from there, taking an 11-8 lead on a Moffitt triple and singles from Rumans and Tran. With Tran on first, senior Delaney Stiles brought the inning to a fitting end, belting a homer to left center field for Franklin’s sixth and seventh runs of the frame. In the seventh inning Murphy attempted a comeback with a solo home run, but were unable to erase their deficit and fell 13-9.
“It was back-and-forth, back-and-forth, and then boom, we unloaded,” said Bishop of batting around the order in the sixth. “I wish we’d have hit the whole game like we hit that one inning, but we scored runs in I think four of our six innings. Both pitchers [Rumans and Tran] pitched well today, and I was pleased with both of them. Kendall got in a little bit of trouble there in the fifth, but after she gave up that hit and gave up three runs she kind of shut them down after that, and we managed to get out of the inning with it just being 8-6, which was big. We’ve still got work to do, but you can’t be unhappy when you’re 13-2.”
Two nights later, the team traveled to Sylva for their second and final conference game with Smoky. In a rematch of their 7-6 early-season win over the Mustangs March 7, Franklin again ground out a hard-fought victory.
“We played a little bit like we did when we went to North that night,” said Bishop. “It seemed like we were hitting stuff off the end of the bat and trying to pull everything. We did manage to get enough hits to do what we needed to do, and we had to change things around a little bit because Delaney wasn’t there. … It was a little tight there at first, but we kind of pulled away there near the end.”
With senior Cassidy Parker in left field, the Panthers eked out a narrow 6-4 win, setting up a critical showdown with West Henderson April 30. Entering the game at 9-2, half a game behind the 9-1 Falcons, a win meant Franklin would at least share the Mountain Seven title, before ending their regular season at T.C. Roberson May 5. The Panthers ended the week as the 6th-ranked team in the 3A West.