Murphy – The Bulldogs dropped their second game to Franklin in as many meetings, falling to the Panthers 12-8 on March 19.
Colton Morgan opened for the “Diamond Dogs” (2-3) on the mound. Although he gave up 10 runs in 3.1 innings, only five of them were earned. Morgan gave up seven hits, struck out seven and walked one.
Murphy’s errors plagued the Dogs from the start. After one out Morgan walked the next batter. Franklin (2-4) singled to give them runners at first and second and two back-to-back errors scored both runners. Morgan did get out of the inning without any more damage as he stranded the other two Franklin base runners.
Murphy got something going in the top of the second as Zack Skogen reached on an error, and Cameron Clem and Zack Hogsed walked to load the bases with no outs. Murphy would only manage to get one runner home as Franklin retired the next three batters in order.
Only Skogen was able to reach home on a fielder’s choice, stranding two Murphy runners.
Franklin led 2-1 entering the bottom half of the second inning, and. Morgan kept them there as he stuck out the side. Franklin pitching helped the Dogs to their first lead of the game as Tommy Crapse reached base on a catcher interference call to lead off the inning, and after one out Franklin pitcher Abram Apel issued four consecutive walks to bring two Murphy base runners home.
Morgan helped his cause with a base hit to score two more Murphy runners, and Aayden Williams scored another as he reached on a fielder’s choice. Murphy led 6-2 going into the bottom of the third inning, which is when the error bug hit.
Morgan struck out the leadoff batter, but the next reached base on an error. A fly ball to Cameron Clem in left field gave the dogs two outs, and that’s when disaster struck.
With two outs in the inning, two errors and a hit scored three Franklin runs to cut Murphy’s lead to 6-5.
Crapse led off the fourth with a walk and later scored on back-to-back hits by Alex Roldan and Adam Cook to extend the Dogs lead to 7-5, but the lead was short lived as Franklin’s bats came to life in the bottom of the fourth. The Panther racked up five runs on four hits to put the Panthers back on top 10-7.
Murphy’s only other run came in the top of the sixth inning to close the Franklin lead to 10-8, but could get no closer. Franklin added two more runs in the bottom of the sixth to net the final score of 12-8.
Colton Morgan led the Dogs at the plate with two hits off four at bats. He was also saddled with the loss on the mound. Caleb Kephart pitched 2.2 innings and gave up two runs on two hits. He struck out one and walked two .
The Diamond Dogs return to Smoky Mountain Conference play this week, as they will face cross-county rival Andrews on Thursday. First pitch is at 4:30 p.m.