Panther softball has earned its first Mountain Seven Conference wins.
After routing Madison at home to open the season, the team embarked on a 10-day, five-game road trip, returning to Macon Middle School for games with Enka and Pisgah. Helped by Kendall Rumans breaking an all-time program record, Franklin ended their second week tied for first.
Scarcely 12 hours after beating Madison 15-0, on Saturday, March 1, they traveled to Crest (Shelby) for a doubleheader. While they fell to the host team 15-1, they had better luck versus McDowell, besting the Titans in a 10-9 thriller. Down 2-0 in the third, McDowell heated up in the bottom of the inning, plating six runs to take the lead. Franklin responded in the top of the fifth however, exploding for eight runs to retake the lead 10-6. The Titans scored three more runs in the bottom of the inning, but managed just one hit off Suzanna Cabe the rest of the way. Rumans led the Panthers at the plate, going 2-for-3 with a home run, a double, a walk and three RBIs.
Following their Saturday doubleheader, on Tuesday, March 4, they traveled to Enka to take on the Jets. There both teams looked evenly matched early, sitting tied 1-1 after five. Enka’s offense heated up in the seventh however, plating three runs in the final frame to steal a win. Cabe racked up 10 strikeouts in the loss, while Rumans smacked an RBI double.
On Friday, March 7, the team traveled to East Henderson for their first Mountain Seven game. There Cabe impressed on the mound once again, tossing 11 more strikeouts en route to a 10-0 win. With five more RBIs against the Eagles, Rumans improved her career total to 100, tying mid-2010s star Haeli Bryson for Franklin’s all-time record. With two more home runs she also neared another Bryson record, ending the game four shy of Bryson’s career mark (28).
On Tuesday, March 11, the team continued their M7 schedule with a trip to Tuscola. There both teams engaged in a defensive struggle, from which Franklin emerged with a 3-1 win. Cabe went the distance with 11 more strikeouts in seven innings, while Rumans went 2-for-3 with a homer, a double and a walk.
“We played really good, and Suzanna pitched really good,” said head coach Bobby Bishop of the trip to Waynesville. “The score should have been more than what it was – I felt like we got robbed out of two or three runs on a call ... but it really didn’t matter because we wound up winning anyway.”
The next night, the team returned to Franklin for a rematch with Enka. There the Jets came out firing in the first, plating two runs with a leadoff double, a walk, a sacrifice fly and a single. Cabe led off the bottom of the inning with a first-pitch single, then scored on another first-pitch single from Jozy Dehart.
Enka stayed hot in the top of the second, plating two more runs with a walk, an error, an advance on a throw and a single. The Jets held Franklin to just one more hit from there, riding pitcher Savannah Frisbee to a 6-1 win.
The next night the team returned to MMS to face Pisgah in their third conference game of the season. Having tossed a 1-2-3 bottom of the first, Cabe sparked Franklin’s offense in the bottom of the inning, smacking a lead off single and scoring on a first-pitch double by McConnell.
Franklin’s offense stayed hot in the second, getting a leadoff home run from Makayla Pendergrass to left center field. Moments later Meliah Mason singled, advanced to second on an error, moved to third on a wild pitch and scored on an RBI groundout from Julie Edelheit.
Cabe continued her dominant pitching from there, preserving Franklin’s 3-0 lead to the bottom of the sixth. There McConnell kicked Franklin’s offense back into gear, belting a leadoff triple to right field and scoring on a Dehart single. Pendergrass smacked a single of her own on the next at-bat, then scored on a three-run shot from Mason to left center. Franklin defended their 7-0 lead to the final out. The win improved Franklin’s record to 5-3 overall including a 3-0 mark in the Mountain Seven, where they ended the week tied with West Henderson for first place.
“Suzanna pitched a great game of course, didn’t give up many hits, and we made a bunch of good defensive plays,” said Bishop when reached for comment after a postgame chat with Pisgah’s coaching staff. “[Pisgah] played West – I think it was Tuesday night. It was 4-2, but they left like eight or 10 runners on, so they had the opportunity. They said, ‘If y’all play [West] like y’all did tonight, y’all will beat West.”
“I feel like we’re kind of coming together. We’ve lost a couple of games, but we’ve lost to a couple of really good teams, and that’s the only way we’re going to get better – you’re not gonna get better by facing teams that are weaker than you are.”