Good luck to Demons in baseball playoffs

Published 8:41 am Friday, May 8, 2015

Last weekend, Franklinton’s baseball team captured a best of three series over Lutcher to advance to the quarterfinal round of the playoffs.

The Demons cruised past Lutcher in the opener, which was Friday, 12-0.

But Saturday was a different story.

Franklinton ran into some adversity. They trailed for part of the second game but continued to come back and took a 7-4 lead into the seventh.

Adversity hit once again when Lutcher scored seven runs in the sixth to go ahead 11-7, which was the final.

It was a tough loss, but the team only had about 40 minutes before the next game started to put the setback behind them and be ready to play in a deciding game.

A loss would end the season, but a win would allow the Demons to advance to another best-of-three scenario.

Lutcher continued to play tough, going up 1-0 after one-half an inning.

The Demons came back with a run to tie 1-1.

But there were those key moments. Despite the number of pitches thrown in a baseball game, it’s only a few that are remembered. It’s those moments that can turn the momentum of a game one way or another.

One in particular came with Johnathan Crain at the plate in the third inning with two men on and two outs and the game still tied at one.

Crain got hold of a pitch and took it over the right field fence for his first high school home run, a three-run round tripper.

Franklinton still led 4-2 in the seventh when Austin Bradford was called upon to pitch in relief of Landon Magee, who had thrown a gem. Bradford came in with the bases loaded and nobody out.

The hopes of moving on were still up in the air. The potential go-ahead run was on first. Bradford stepped up and struck out all three hitters he faced.

It was truly an exciting day of baseball at FHS Saturday.

Congratulations to the Demons on advancing and good luck over the next two days. Franklinton plays St. Michael the Archangel in another best of three, with all games at FHS. Game one is today at 4:30 p.m. Game two begins at 1 p.m. tomorrow, and if needed the deciding game is set for 4 p.m.