The Franklin softball team has been on a roll lately, and at the perfect time.
Franklin opened up the annual Johnson County softball tournament in near perfect form, pounding out 18 hits and easily beating visiting Greenwood Christian 24-0 Friday afternoon.
The Grizzly Cubs (7-12) will take on Class 4A No. 1 Center Grove in a semifinal game at Center Grove this morning.
Pitchers Rilee King and Carleigh Wilmore combined for a one-hitter for Franklin.
It was the fourth straight win for the Cubs and their fifth in the past six games. Moreover, it was also the third straight shutout for Franklin, which blanked Mid-State Conference foe Plainfield earlier this week.
“We’ve been playing well lately, Franklin coach Lisa Whitlow-Hill said. “We’ve been hitting the ball and playing defense, something we hadn’t done earlier this season.”
Franklin jumped out early, taking advantage of some erratic pitching by the Cougars. The Cubs took first on five walks and a hit batter in the first, but also swung the bat, earning eight hits and scoring a dozen runs.
It was pretty much the same thing in the second inning, as the Cubs whacked six more hits while batting around the order again.
The Cubs eased off in the third inning, scoring “only” five runs.
Leading Franklin was freshman third baseman Izzy Harrison, who had a perfect day, going 4-for-4 with a single and three doubles. Harrison also drove in five runs, scored four times and added two stolen bases. King helped her own cause with two hits, including a two-run homer over the left-field fence in the second inning. King also scored four times and had four RBIs.
Sophomore Baylee Parker whacked consecutive triples and scored three times, while getting a pair of RBIs.
For Greenwood Christian, this has been a season in which they’ve either been the bug or the windshield, winning huge and losing big.
The Cougars have scored 184 runs this year and had just come off a 28-run performance against Providence Cristo Rey, but they couldn’t get anything going against King, who had six straight strikeouts.
Greenwood Christian averted being no-hit when sophomore Morgan Haynes singled up the middle in the fifth and final inning.
