Three more games and three blowout wins are in the books for Panther softball.
On the week of March 20, Franklin had three games on the schedule, an away rematch with Hiwassee Dam and home Mountain Seven contests with Pisgah and North Henderson. In three convincing victories to improve their record to 7-3, Bobby Bishop’s team outscored their opponents by a combined total of 25-4.
On Monday, March 20, the Panthers traveled to Hiwassee Dam to rehash their narrow 10-9 home victory March 7. There, the second game was much less dramatic than the first.
“Over here it was 10-9; they didn’t hit the ball quite as well as they did over here,” said Bishop of the win in Cherokee County. “They started another girl, not the big girl that pitched over here, and we scored three off of her in the first inning. Then they brought the big girl in and she held us in check for an inning or two, and then we scored one or two and one or two more. They scored one here and one there, but we wound up winning 7-2.”
In addition to one and two-thirds scoreless innings on the mound, promising freshman Kendall Rumans led all Panthers at the plate, finishing 2 for 4 with a double, a home run, four RBIs and two runs scored. Junior pitcher Meyaeh Tran allowed just two runs in five and one-third innings, while senior second baseman Tessa Dehart posted an RBI double, a run and a stolen base.
After completing their season sweep of Hiwassee Dam, the next night the Panthers returned to Macon Middle School for a M7C matchup with Pisgah. Tran opened the scoring in the bottom of the second, leading off the inning with a 1-1 homer to left center field.
Franklin extended their lead in the top of the third, getting a leadoff single from senior shortstop Tori Ensley and a first-pitch homer to left center from promising freshman Ashlynn McConnell to make it a 3-0 game. The Panther rally continued from there, as a hit-by-pitch and singles from Rumans and junior catcher Avery Moffitt soon loaded the bases with zero outs. On the next at-bat, junior first baseman Bree Carver brought Rumans home on a hard-hit groundout, but Franklin was unable to capitalize further.
The Panthers scored for the third straight inning in the fourth, getting a leadoff single and a steal from Ensley and a hard-hit double from Moffitt to take a commanding 5-0 lead. The Eagles’ leadoff hitter cut into their deficit in the fifth, beating out a bunt single, advancing to third on a pair of groundouts and coming home on a Panther error. After another single put runners on first and second, senior second baseman Tessa Dehart likely saved another run, making an impressive catch on a hard-hit line drive to end the inning.
After dashing the Eagles’ hopes, Dehart led off the bottom of the inning, drawing a base on balls and advancing to third on bunt singles by Delaney Stiles and Mya Crisp. With the bases loaded, Ensley brought Dehart and Stiles home with a two-run single to put her team up 7-1. Moffitt smacked her second RBI double minutes later to make it 9-1.
Franklin’s defense shut the Eagles down the rest of the way, recording 1-2-3 frames in the last two innings including three outs on three pitches in the sixth.
Moffit led all Panthers at the plate in the contest, going 3 for 4 with the fourth-inning double and three RBIs. Rumans finished with a five-hit complete game on the mound.
After routing the Black Bears in Canton, on Friday, March 24, the Panthers traveled to North Henderson for their second straight Mountain Seven Conference game. There, they took a three-run second-inning lead and never looked back, going on to match their 9-1 scoreline over Pisgah.
“We played well. Meyaeh pitched the whole game and did a great job, and only gave up one run,” said Bishop. “We played good defense, and I don’t even think we made an error. They got a few hits here and there, but we did a good job on that. There was one inning there we had nobody on with two outs, and got like four hits back-to-back-to-back-to-back and drove in two or three runs. … In other words, we made all the plays.”
Rumans continued her red-hot hitting streak against the Knights, going 3 for 4 with four RBIs and her second home run of the week. Junior left fielder Delaney Stiles went 2 for 3 with two doubles and two runs scored.
With wins over Pisgah and North, the Panthers improved their M7C record to 3-1, good for second place behind 3-0 Tuscola.