PITSBURG – The Franklin Monroe Jets defeated the visiting Tri-County North Panthers 3-2 in Tuesday night WOAC varsity baseball action.
“Today was a great opportunity for us to get going on the right foot, keep winning games when we need to,” said FM coach Tyler Zimmerman. “Tri-County North is an excellent opponent; they played very well today, so it was good to come out on top.”
“We left too many guys on base,” said North coach Garrett Gray. “We just couldn’t string it together tonight.”
North took advantage of a first-inning two-out Braylen Keener walk, Garner Parlett getting hit by a pitch, and a Ryan Shively run-scoring line drive single to right, giving the Panthers an early 1-0 lead that would hold up through four innings.
Franklin Monroe dented the board in the bottom of the fifth with a Chase Stebbins leadoff walk and a steal of second. Braden Gilbert followed with an infield single, putting runners on first and third before Brandt Filbrun laced a single to right, plating a run and a second run scoring on a Panthers error. Matthew Hurley gave the Jets a 3-0 lead with an RBI single to right, sending the game to the sixth inning.
Tri-County North got one of the runs back in the top of the sixth with a Zach Jean walk, a Luke Baughman single, and a Peyton Fannin sacrifice fly to trail 3-2.
North had runners on first and second with one out before an out to right, and Stebbins coming up with a diving catch of a line drive at shortstop to preserve the win for Franklin Monroe.
“Same kid (starting pitcher), moved him to shortstop and made a play,” Zimmerman stated. “He’s a senior leader for us, leadoff batter, really starting to excel this season, so he did the job on the mound, and once we moved him to short, he made the play there too.”
“After tonight, we have to get back to work, get back to the drawing board, get some things taken care of, clean some things up,” said Coach Gray. “We will, we’re going to be right back at it.”
Stebbins earned the FM win, allowing one earned run over 6.0 innings on six hits, four walks while striking out six. Gilbert tossed one inning in relief with no runs, one hit, no walks, and one strikeout.
“Chase Stebbins did a great job of getting out of jams,” Coach Zimmerman noted. “There were a couple of times, second and third and no outs, bases loaded one out multiple times, and he was able to work himself out of it and hold them to just two, which was a great job on his part today on the mound.”
Jean went five innings on the mound for North, allowing three earned runs, six hits, three walks, and striking out two. Ben Knife pitched 1.0 innings in relief, no runs, one hit, and one strikeout.
Stebbins and Filbrun led Franklin Monroe, each going 2-3 with one run and one RBI; Hurley went 2-3 with an RBI; Gilbert was 1-3 with a run scored.
For the Panthers, Shively was 2-4 with an RBI; Carter 1-3 with a walk; Fannin 1-3, one RBI; Keener a walk and a run; Knife 1-4; Gabe Heltsley 1-4; Luke Baughman 1-2, and a walk.
The Panthers entered the game riding a six-game win streak and a perfect 5-0 conference mark. Franklin Monroe entered with a 5-1 league mark, and with the dust settled, the teams closed out the night with FM at 6-1 and North at 5-1. Overall, North stands at 10-3 and FM 7-5 on the 2025 season.
BOX SCORE:
123 456 7 R H E
100 001 0 2 7 2 Tri-County North
000 030 0 3 7 4 Franklin Monroe
