Panther softball is on to Round 3 of the state playoffs.
Having earned a first-round bye as one of the 5A West’s top teams, they entered the tournament’s second round Friday, May 8, hosting Erwin at Macon Middle School. With a 6-1 rout they advanced to the regional quarterfinals, traveling to North Davidson May 12.
Franklin wasted little time in the first inning, loading the bases with walks from Alyssa Awtrey, Kendall Rumans and Ashlyn McConnell. They then scored two runs off another walk from Chloe Lambert and a single from Makayla Pendergrass.
Franklin loaded the bases again in the third, getting singles from Rumans and McConnell and walks from Lambert and Meliah Mason. Pendergrass then knocked another bases-loaded single, driving in two more runs for her second and third RBIs.
Erwin answered in the top of the fourth, cutting Franklin’s lead to 4-1 off a double and an error. Franklin slammed the door in the bottom of the sixth however, scoring the final two runs off an Awtrey single, a Suzanna Cabe double and a McConnell sacrifice fly. Cabe then capped a complete game on the mound for Franklin in the seventh, dealing her seventh strikeout after allowing just six hits.
“It feels great that we get to keep going in playoffs,” said McConnell after the game. “[Franklin’s keys to victory were] just to take it where we could get it, try not to make so many errors and have good at-bats. … We've really worked on our hitting this year and driving it up the middle, and just trying to inch runs in and not hit as many home runs.”
“We played pretty good. We made two little boo-boos on defense, but we made all the other plays, and Suzanna pitched great,” said head coach Bobby Bishop. “When you give up one run, I can't ask her to do any more than that. It wasn't our best night offensively, but we did hit it enough to score six runs, so hopefully next game we'll hit it a little bit better. We did start hitting it a little bit better during that last inning; it just took us a while to catch onto what [Erwin’s pitcher’s] spin was.”
In routing Erwin, Franklin advanced to a third-round game at North Davidson, who had blown out #14 Parkwood in Round 2. As the region’s #3 seed, the Knights hosted the sixth-ranked Panthers, who made the trip to Lexington after press time Tuesday night. Despite the distance between their schools, the powerhouse programs have plenty of history.
“They beat us here last year, and they beat us down there back when Tori Ensley was a senior,” said Bishop, referring to the slugger’s last year in 2023. “But, we beat them here in the fourth round before we went to West Stanly [for the 2019 2A West Regional Championship]. We beat them here 2-1, so we've played them a couple of times. They beat us twice, we beat them once, so it ain't like they can't be beat.”
“I think going into today they were 19-5; we'll be 18-7 after tonight, so [both teams have] pretty similar records,” he continued. “But I know that they've always had a really good team. They've always played us tough, so we're going to have to play our best.”
Sports Editor Will Woolever can be reached at sports@thefranklinpress.com