FRANKLIN, Mass. – It looked like Franklin and BC High were headed to extra innings when Panther junior Chris Goode flared a high fly ball into foul territory down the right field line with two outs in the bottom of the seventh inning.
Instead, the ball eluded the right fielder and dropped harmlessly in foul territory. Goode made the most out of his second chance.
With a runner on third, Goode hit a slow roller to the left side of the infield and raced down the first base line, beating the throw from the shortstop for a walk-off infield single as CJ Jette crossed the plate for the winning run, giving the top-seeded Panthers a 2-1 win over 13th-seeded Eagles.
Franklin will host Xaverian on Monday night in the D1 South Sectional Final.
“After I popped it up, and my approach for every at-bat, I just take a deep breath and erase everything that happened before and focus on the next pitch,” Goode said. “I worked the count to 3-2, saw the outside pitch and put it on the ground, put it in play and the second I saw it on the ground I was going to beat it out with the shortstop playing deep.”
CJ Jette was the catalyst behind the winning run, recording his third hit of the game out of the eighth spot in the lineup to lead off the bottom of the inning. Head coach Zach Brown went to his bench next, bringing in senior Jon Turner, who laid down a perfect sacrifice bunt to move Jette over to second.
Sophomore Ryan Gerety grounded out to short but Jette advanced to third on the play. Goode overcame the foul ball early in the at-bat to work the count full before putting it in play for the game-winning hit.
“He’s been one of our best guys all year,” Brown said of Goode, who was without a hit to that point. “It felt like he had just missed a couple of pitches [in previous at-bats]. He was on time, just a little under. He made the adjustment after he hit the foul ball and got above it and it worked out for us.”
“It was exactly what we thought it was going to be. Just two really good two baseball teams locking together. We had a feeling it was going to come down who could execute in the late innings. I’m just proud of the guys. CJ Jette is an animal at the bottom of the lineup, and Jon Turner, a senior coming off the bench, hasn’t really played much this year and was in a big spot, and he had ice water in his veins. Just really proud of the guys.”
The Panthers were in position to win largely due to a stellar pitching outing from junior Jacob Jette, who tossed a complete game with 12 strikeouts for the win. In the final four innings, he allowed just one hit (a single in the fourth but stranded the runner at second) and one walk (stranded the runner at second after a stolen base). He retired the side in order in the fifth and seventh, giving the Panthers some momentum heading into the home half of the final inning.
“Unbelievable performance by Jette,” Goode said of his classmate. “We couldn’t pick him up with the run support but it ended up working out. He pitched his ass, he was having more kids swinging swords than I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”
Franklin didn’t waste much time grabbing the lead, pushing across a run in the bottom of the first. Jacob Jette worked around two walks in the top half, getting back-to-back strikeouts and a pop-up to center to give the Panthers energy heading into the bottom half.
Gerety was hit by a pitch, stole second, moved to third on a fielder’s choice by Nate Cooke, and came home to score on a wild pitch as Franklin seized a 1-0 lead.
CJ Jette reached on a two-out bunt in the bottom of the third and Jake Fitzgibbons drew a two-out walk in the third, but neither advanced past first. BC High scored a run in the top of the third to tie the game. Tim Wagner smashed a two-out double off the fence in right-center field to bring Chris Capozzi (leadoff single) home to make it 1-1.
After being retired in order in the fourth by BC High starter Josh Sunderland (CG, 2ER, 5H, 3BB, 8K), Franklin’s offense had a big opportunity to take the lead back in the bottom of the fifth. CJ Jette singled, freshman Henry Digiorgio was hit by a pitch, and Gerety was intentionally walked to load the bases with no outs.
Sunderland got a big out with a strikeout and then got a huge assist from his defense as first baseman Andrew Manning made a diving catch on a hard-hit line drive from Fitzgibbons and quickly got back to his feet to tag first for a double play to escape the inning without any damage.
Wagner walked to open the top of the sixth but Jacob Jette got back-to-back strikeouts (both looking) and a grounder to first to halt any momentum the Eagles possibly picked up.
“They’ve just been really resilient all year,” Brown said. “They’re a confident group and they believe in each other, and that’s been on display. You can’t fake that stuff. You feel the emotion swing and then you feel the resolve. A lot of that had to do with Jacob. He went out and had a good inning and gave us another chance to come back and execute.”
It marks Franklin’s first appearance in the D1 South final since 2011, when they also beat BC High in the semis and played Xaverian in the finals, earning a 6-5 win that year.
First pitch between the Panthers and Hawks is scheduled for Monday at 7:00 PM at Franklin High.