Life moves pretty fast. If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss an 11-run inning.
Sophomore Alysa Vaught clubbed a go-ahead grand slam, keying that one seismic frame that powered host Franklin to a 14-4 softball victory over Indian Creek on Monday.
“We all just kind of got it together, and we started to play like we can,” Vaught said of her team’s breakthrough inning.
Held completely in check by Braves starter Alyssa Lewis through the first three innings, the Grizzly Cubs (2-2) opened the floodgates in the fourth. Ellie Chumbley led off with a double down the left-field line, Kiara Lynn followed with a walk and Mia Herbert loaded the bases with a bunt single.
Ashlynn Keser then tied the game up with a two-run double, and after a walk to Emily Fuqua filled the bags yet again, Vaught delivered the kill shot with a blast over the wall in left center.
“Honestly, I was just looking for a base hit,” Vaught said. “I got up there, and that happened.”
Franklin wasn’t done, though. A Sara Small single bookended by walks to Lexi Willey and Chumbley, loaded the bases with one out, and three more runs came in on a hit batter, a walk and an error. Kiara Lynn scored on a double steal to make it 10-2, and Vaught picked up her fifth RBI of the inning on a double that plated Keser.
Indian Creek (1-2) fought back with two runs in the top of the fifth. Jasmine Day led off with a double and came around on an RBI triple by Lewis, who then scored on a sacrifice fly to left by Ava Wagner.
That was only enough to temporarily stem the tide, however, as the Grizzly Cubs walked it off in the bottom of the inning. Adeline Blackwell reached on a three-base error and scored on a two-out double by Mia Herbert. A wild pitch plated Alexis Brown to make it 13-4, and a bases-loaded walk to Vaught pushed Herbert across to seal it.
Franklin coach Kayla Craft credited a midgame pep talk from assistant Ken Sears for helping to change the momentum.
“Coach Ken had a talk with them like, ‘Relax. Breathe, have fun and hit the ball,’” Craft recalled. “That’s when we just unleashed, so his little talk helped. We told them just keep the intensity up, and good things will happen if you do.”
The Braves had gotten the upper hand early with single runs in the first and third. Emily Todor got the Braves on the board when she led off the game with a single, stole her way to third and came in on a base hit by Lewis. Two innings later, Day reached on a leadoff hit, advanced on a wild pitch and passed ball and then scored on a double steal.
Unfortunately for the Braves, the good times didn’t last.
“They just got on our pitcher and made some timely hits,” Indian Creek coach Gary Mitchell said. “They had runners on and made timely hits, where when we had runners on, we left six on base tonight. If we score early with them and put them down a little bit, it changes the game.”
Instead, it was Vaught and the Grizzly Cubs who changed it.
