Just over 10 days after being the final team selected into the tournament, Franklin earned a spot in the Super Eight final.
With Franklin leading by a run and the tying and winning runs on base,’ closer Bryan Woelfel threw a full count fastball on the black for strike three as No. 7 Franklin defeated No. 4 Central Catholic, 6-5, on Thursday night to advance to the Super Eight championship.
Franklin will play the winner of Central Catholic vs. BC High in the finals.
“I am pretty used to that situation and I love having that pressure on my hands,” said Woelfel. “We said we’d be here, but we didn’t know we actually would be. It’s unbelievable.”
The Panthers (20-5) trailed 4-3 entering the ninth inning, but a fielding error, base hit, and two-out RBI single off the bat of Cooper Ross tied the game at four.
In the bottom of the ninth, Dominic Keegan belted a two-out triple off of Woelfel (4 IP, 1 ER, 2 H, 4 Ks) to put the winning run 90 feet away. Woelfel induced a groundball to shortstop that was picked out of the dirt at first base by Steve Lutazzi to send the game to extra innings.
The Panthers scored twice in the top of the top 10th to take the lead. An error, walk, and hit batter loaded the bases with one out and Colby Fitzgibonns hit a slow chopper to third that was misplayed bringing home Jack Nally with the go-ahead run. Moments later, Scott Elliot lofted a sacrifice fly to center to give Franklin a 6-4 lead.
Central Catholic refused to go quietly in its half of the tenth. With two outs and nobody on, Sean Thompson singled, Patrick Casserly was hit by a pitch, and Joe Sanchez grounded an RBI single into right field to trim the deficit to 6-5.
With Keegan in the on-deck circle and the winning run on first base, Woelfel threw a 3-2 fastball on the black for strike three to slam the door.
Trailing 3-0 in the bottom of the third, Central scored four times with two outs to jump in front.
Steve Hajjar got the Raiders on the board with an RBI double down the left field and Michael Borrelli followed with an RBI base hit to pull Central within 3-2. After a walk put two on with two out, Lucier and Thompson connected on consecutive RBI singles to give the Raiders a 4-3 lead.
In the first game of the day, facing Walpole for the second time in a week, Mike Vasil dominated. Vasil threw a complete game shutout allowing just five hits while striking out 13 as No. 1 BC High defeated No. 8 Walpole, 9-0, to advance to the Super Eight semifinals against Central Catholic on Saturday.