Franklin softball advances to regional finals with 9-1 win over East Bernard

WALLER, Texas (KBTX) - The Franklin softball team beat East Bernard 9-1 in game three of their regional semifinal playoff series at Waller High School Saturday afternoon.

Franklin’s starting pitcher Reese Cottrell threw a complete game with seven strikeouts.

The Lady Lions added four insurance runs in the fifth inning. Reese Cottrell had an RBI, Karaline Smitherman had a sac fly, and Traci Lowry had 2 RBI thanks to East Bernard throwing errors resulting in an inside-the-park home run.

Smitherman had a fielder’s choice that scored Hailey Fannin in the third inning. Smitherman also had an RBI double in the first inning, and Fannin started the scoring in the first with an inside-the-park home run. Emma Rekieta had a fielder’s choice in the opening frame and an RBI double in the top of the seventh inning.

The win came after a 6-0 loss Friday night which forced a deciding game 3 of the series. Head Coach Jordan Lyle was pleased with how they responded.

”Buy-in. Adjusting,” Lyle explained the differences between games two and three. “I trust in that girl (Reese Cottrell). She’s special. She’s a heck of a competitor, a heck of a pitcher, and hitting’s hard. But you’ve got to simplify it and have a plan. You’ve got to execute the plan. They did that tonight. I’m just extremely, extremely proud of them,” Lyle added.

“We obviously had a rough game two,” Cottrell said. “We came in and knew we had to put everything on the line. The offense and defense had to be great. That’s what we did. We executed every part of the game today,” Cottrell added.

Franklin advances to the regional finals next week for the second straight season. They will take on Grandview with a trip to state on the line.

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