Franklin softball uses big first inning to put away T.C. Roberson
ASHEVILLE, N.C. — There was never a doubt for Franklin softball on Thursday. The Panthers closed out the regular season with a 17-7 road nonconference victory at T.C. Roberson.
Franklin (15-3, 9-3) jumped out to a 9-0 lead after the first inning, punctuated the bottom half of the inning as Avery Moffit threw out T.C. Roberson shorstop Kate Nunnally trying to tag up from third base to score.
T.C. Roberson (5-13, 5-7), in its last game of the season, got seven solid innings of relief from Courtney Grimmer after she came into the game down 5-0 with the bases loaded and nobody out in the first inning.
Franklin's bats were cooled for the second, third, and fourth innings, and Roberson got on the board in the bottom of the fourth to make it 9-3. But the Panthers tacked on three runs in the fifth, three more in the sixth, and two in the top of the seventh.
Franklin ended the game with 17 hits and Panthers pitcher Meyaeh Tran went the distance.
Ashlyn McConnell went 5-for-6 at the plate with one RBI. Kendall Rumans had three hits and three RBIs, Moffit had two RBIs, as did Olivia Birchard and Laura Holland. Cassidy Parker also added an RBI and nine-hole hitter Layla Maloy had three RBIs on 1-of-5 hitting.
Roberson had 13 hits, scoring three more in the fifth inning and one in the sixth. The Rams were led at the plate by Jordyn Summey's three RBIs, while Grimmer added two and Olivia Demoss had one.
Franklin, ranked fifth in the 828 area code, finished runner-up in the Mountain 7 Conference behind West Henderson.
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