It’s two wins down, 17 to go for Panther softball.
After a stellar 2023, winning the Mountain Seven Conference and playing in the second round of the state playoffs, on the first week of March Franklin finally returned to action. In wins over T.C. Roberson and M7 rival Smoky Mountain, Bobby Bishop’s team started their season on the right foot.
“Most of them have been working out since after they got back to school [Jan. 8],” said Bishop of the team’s offseason practice. “The basketball girls were kind of in and out – sometimes they could come, sometimes they couldn’t – but at least for the last week and a half or so, we’ve had all of them here, and it’s working really good.”
After two months of preseason workouts but less than two weeks with their full team, on March 5 Franklin opened their season versus T.C. Roberson. Despite their lack of time on task, the Panthers came out firing at Macon Middle School, scoring a first-inning run off back-to-back doubles from Kendall Rumans and Avery Moffitt.
Franklin tacked onto their lead in the third, getting a single from Layla Maloy, an error and a hard-hit RBI double from Ashlyn McConnell. Rumans then smacked her second double of the game to bring McConnell home. Moments later, Moffitt crushed a two-run home run to left-center field to make it 5-0.
The Panther offense stayed hot in the fourth, getting a single from Laura Holland, a sacrifice bunt from Jozy Dehart and a standup RBI triple from Maloy. Rumans brought Maloy home with her third hit of the game to make it 7-0, and held the Rams scoreless from the mound the rest of the way. The sophomore’s seven-inning shutout was helped by stellar defense from McConnell at shortstop, including a beautiful third-inning sliding catch/throw to first and a fourth-inning 6-3 double play.
“We’ve got some things to work on, but we put the ball in play and didn’t strike out much,” said Bishop of dismantling the Rams. “I thought we played well, and Kendall pitched well. … Avery hit a home run, and we got a couple more really good hits. We laid down a bunt and moved the runner up, and then scored on the next hit off of it. I told them, ‘Those little things don’t seem like much, but in a close game at 2-1, 3-2, those things are huge.’”
Despite their lack of preseason practice and several underclassmen playing key roles, Franklin showed few signs of growing pains in their first game. With plenty of talent at every position, Bishop said the Panthers should have a deep lineup this year.
“We’ve got a couple people playing in places that they either hadn’t ever played before, or it’s their first year of playing,” he said. “We’ve got two or three on the bench that are capable of playing too, so that’s the reason I gave a couple of them a shot there at the end. We’ll probably continue to do that some here and there and try to get them all some innings in, because you never know what’s gonna happen. … I think the game experience is the best experience for them.”
After routing Roberson, two nights later the team returned to Macon Middle for their Mountain Seven Conference opener. After beating the Mustangs 10-0 and 17-0 last year, Franklin took a 1-0 lead in the second, courtesy of a Holland walk, a Maloy bunt single and a Rumans RBI double. They then tacked onto their lead in the fourth, getting another Maloy single, a McConnell RBI double and a Moffitt RBI single to make it 3-0.
Franklin’s bats stayed hot in the fifth, leading off the inning with a Holland bunt single, a Dehart sacrifice bunt and a Maloy RBI single. With the bases loaded following an error and a Rumans comebacker to the mound, Olivia Birchard knocked a two-RBI single to put her team up 6-0.
The Mustangs came to life in the sixth, cutting Franklin’s lead to 6-4 with four singles, an error and a double. They continued their improbable comeback in the seventh, tying the game and stunning the home fans with two singles, a walk and a hit batter.
The Panthers stayed calm in the bottom of the inning, nearly winning the game on a long fly ball from McConnell that just missed the yellow line. Despite the out, they refused to go quietly, putting runners on first and second through an error and a Moffitt walk. Down to their final out, senior Meyaeh Tran made the play of the game for Franklin, dropping a single just beyond Smoky’s shortstop’s reach to bring Rumans home and win 7-6.
“I was scared – I wasn’t really hitting as good, so I was just trying to lay something down to get somebody in as best I could,” said Tran after the game of her final at-bat. “I was just waiting for a good one. I had been swinging and had been a little short on a few just hitting off the end of my bat, but I hit that one at the end and it went a little farther than the others.”
“I told them, ‘[You] girls need to realize that no matter who we play this year, from the worst team to the best team, you’ve got a big ol’ bullseye on your back,’” said Bishop. “Everybody wants to beat Franklin – they won the conference last year, they’ve got a bunch of returning players. Everybody’s [saying] you should win the conference this year, but that don’t mean you’re gonna win; that means you’ve got to go get it. … We got the win, and it was a conference win, so that’s the bottom line. Whether it was 7-6 or 17-6, it was a win.”