Panther softball leads the Mountain Seven with one more conference game to play.
On the week of April 24, Bobby Bishop’s team faced just two winnable games, in M7C meetings with Smoky Mountain and North Henderson. In claiming both games by a combined score of 37-3, Franklin improved their conference record to 10-1, setting up a showdown with 8-2 West Henderson May 2.
On Tuesday, April 25, Franklin traveled to North Henderson for a rematch of their 9-1 home win over the Knights March 24. There, North had yet to find an answer for the hard-hitting Panthers, falling in a 20-3 rout to drop to 3-7 in the conference.
After blowing out North, on Friday, April 28 the Panthers returned to Macon Middle School to host Smoky Mountain. In a rematch of their 10-0 “mercy rule” win in Sylva March 28, Franklin’s offense looked sharp to start the game, building a 3-0 advantage after two innings. In the bottom of the third, the Panthers exploded for nine more runs, building their lead to 17-0 with five more in the bottom of the fourth. They then shut Smoky out in the fifth to cement the victory.
Senior Meyaeh Tran pitched all five innings for Franklin, allowing just two hits and dealing three strikeouts. Eleven Panthers posted hits in the game, led by home runs from Delaney Stiles, Kendall Rumans and Makayla Pendergrass.
After routing Smoky and North, the Panthers turned their attention to West Henderson, who hosted Franklin after press time Tuesday. The Panthers host T.C. Roberson in their regular season finale May 4.