The Franklin County Rebelettes lost to the Tullahoma Lady Wildcats 13-9 at home on May 7 in an elimination semifinal game for the District 12AAA tournament.

The Rebelettes trailed by as many as 12 runs in the contest with a late rally coming up a few runs short as the loss ended their season.

The Lady Wildcats had six batters reach base in the top of the first with three of them being brought around to score to put the Rebelettes behind early.

Leah Hardison hit a leadoff home run for the Rebelettes in the bottom of the first to make up some ground, but the Lady Wildcats then scored three more runs in the top of the second to make it a 6-1 game.

The Lady Wildcats went on to score four runs in the third inning and three in the fourth to push the deficit up to 13-1 at the game’s midway point.

Bella Smith led off the bottom of the fourth with a triple and scored off of an RBI groundout from Addilyn Carter to erase a small portion of the deficit, and a three-run home run from Hardison in the bottom of the fifth cut the lead down to 13-5.

The Rebelettes scored another run in the bottom of the sixth as an RBI groundout from Hadley Jolley allowed Avari Rice, pinch-running for Alex Hand, to score from third base and make it a 13-6 game.

The Rebelettes made up more ground in the bottom of the seventh as Smith hit into an RBI groundout, Carter notched an RBI double and Addilyn Partin recorded an RBI fielder’s choice, but their attempted comeback ended there as they lost by four.

Dalayna Marshall pitched the first 1 1-3 innings for the Rebelettes with one strikeout, seven hits, two walks and six runs allowed for the day.

Victoria Nelson pitched 3 2-3 innings in relief with four strikeouts, nine hits, two walks, six earned runs and one unearned run allowed.

Smith pitched two shutout innings in relief with one strikeout, one hit and one walk allowed.

With the loss, the Rebelettes finished their season with a record of 17-17.

Lawrence County 7, Rebelettes 3

The Rebelettes lost to the Lawrence County Lady Wildcats 7-3 on the road on May 4 in a semifinal game for the District 12AAA tournament.

The Rebelettes jumped out to an early 3-0 lead against the top-seeded Lady Wildcats, but Lawrence County rallied past them in the middle innings to give them their first loss in the district bracket.

Franklin County head softball coach Kelly Kennedy said that her players got off to a strong start in the game, but they ultimately left too much room for Lawrence County to mount a comeback.

“I thought we came out with a ton of energy. I think that showed when we scored the first three runs of the game, and then I think we just left that door cracked a bit too much,” she said before talking about her team’s next steps. “The season’s not over. Yeah, this one hurts, and we could have gone straight to the district championship, but you know what? You’ve just got to make it through one extra game on Thursday. This team is very capable of doing that.”

The Rebelettes got off to a fast start offensively as Smith hit a leadoff single in the top of the first and scored one pitch later off of an RBI double from Kyleigh DeCamp to make it a 1-0 game.

The Rebelettes added to their lead in the top of the second as Marshall scored off of an error on a ball hit by DeCamp, and Kaitlyn Montgomery contributed an RBI single to give Franklin County a 3-0 advantage.

However, the Lady Wildcats came back to tie the score with two outs in the bottom of the third as an RBI single and a two-run home run in consecutive at-bats put the overall tally at 3-3.

The Lady Wildcats capitalized on a few Franklin County errors in the bottom of the fourth to score three more runs in the frame and put Franklin County in a 6-3 hole.

The last run of the contest was scored off of an error in the bottom of the fifth as the Lady Wildcats expanded their advantage to 7-3 late.

The Rebelettes weren’t able to produce a baserunner in the last three innings of the contest as they lost by four.

Nelson pitched the first 3 2-3 innings for the Rebelettes with three strikeouts, seven hits, one walk, three earned runs and three unearned runs allowed for the day.

Marshall pitched 2 1-3 innings in relief with one strikeout, one hit, one walk and one unearned run allowed.

With the loss, the Rebelettes moved to 17-16 on the season.