Franklin Panthers: Welcome
Franklin falls to Hopkinton 3-0, drops to 0-2
The weather finally cooperated and the Franklin defense continued to shine, but the bats remain asleep as Hopkinton shutout Franklin 3-0. The Franklin offense mustered only 3 hits as the 2013 feeling out process continues. ANTHONY SASTER, CURRAN MCKENZIE and KYLE WARDROP went down 1-2-3 on 8 pitches as MO HUSSAIN simply threw strikes. PAT O'REILLY took the hill for Franklin in the B-1st, PATRICK RODGERS made a nice catch coming in on a line drive in RF, after a 2-out basehit (#6), CURRAN MCKENZIE threw out the would be base-stealer to end the inning. In Franklin's 2nd, another version of 3-up / 3-down as Franklin hardly got a ball onto the infield dirt. A lead-off single (#9) for Hopkinton was quickly erased as McKenzie again gunned down the would-be steal! O'Reilly was matching Hussain batter for batter. Franklin's 3rd was another 1-2-3 beauty (for Hopkinton); 9 up and 9 down for Hussain. Hopkinton's (#16) lead off with a single, and managed to beat the throw down to 2nd on his attempted steal. You would have thought 0-2 on steals was something to think about; and this throw was close! O'Reilly quickly struck out the next two Hopkinton batters, but (#7) singled to right and (#16) came home without a throw, Hopkinton up 1-0 after 3. Rodgers opened the 4th with a base-hit off the 3rd base bag into LF. FINALLY!!! We;ve broken through. Having to get players into the game, and already in the 4th inning, JOHN ROCHE pinch-ran for Rodgers. Running on the pitch Saster blasted a shot to LCF, which was caught and thrown back to 1st, getting Roche doubled off 1st base. A ground out back to the mound, and Hussain was back on 'perfect pace', 12 up and 12 down. O'Reilly faced adversity in the 4th as the Hopkinton batters fouled off many pitches, earning a single and 3 straight walks. Those were some good Hopkinton AB's as they made O'Reilly work; something Franklin needed to do more of. (#8) scored on the 3rd walk of the inning, and then (#13) grounded ack to O'Reilly, who fired to Roche at home for 1 and down to RYAN MORSE at first for the 1-2-3 double play. Hopkinton took advantage of Franklin's youth and the runner from 2nd never stopped and beat the throw home, making the score Hopkinton 3, Franklin 0. Morse reached base in the T-5th on a Hopkinton error with 2 outs, but advanced no further as Franklin continued to struggle getting quality at-bats. O'Reilly got back into his groove and only allowed a baserunner to reach on an infield error. The Franklin 6th saw CAM BEAN draw a 1-out walk. Bean stole 2nd base, but the next two Franklin batters could not get the ball out of the infield. Another good inning from Hussain and Franklin was running out of chances. O'Reilly got stronger after that 5th inning, and continued in the 6th getting 2 ground balls himself while having JUSTIN BATES field a grounder at short. Rally time for Franklin in the 7th? CONNER WARDROP laced a shot to RCF, a sure double when it left the bat, was hauled in by Hopkinton's CF; it just wasn't to be our night. KYLE WARDROP and WILL O'REILLY had back-to-back 2-out singles and suddenly the tying run was at the plate, but Hussain sat the Franklin batter down with a K. Both Hussain and O'Reilly pitched tremendously. Curran McKenzie continued to shine behind the plate throing out 2 runners and almost a 3rd. The infield play was pretty good with only 1 error (which is an improvement from the last few years where errors were part of the team's culture!) and Pat Rodgers made that nice catch on the only ball hit out to the OF in the air. After taking the weekend off, Franklin will host Framingham on Monday, 5:45 PM, field TBA.
