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The Franklin County Rebels lost to the Wilson Central Wildcats 3-0 at home Friday for their ninth loss of the season.

The Rebels fell behind early and were held scoreless for the second game in a row as they took their fourth straight defeat overall.

Franklin County head baseball coach Mike Crossland said that a strong start from freshman pitcher Josiah Cullins was overshadowed by lingering issues on offense.

“I thought we got a very good pitching performance from (Cullins). Right now, offensively, we’re absolutely anemic. We can’t do anything offensively to give us any kind of chance to win a baseball game,” he said. “We’ve got 4,700 excuses of why we can’t move the baseball, and we’ve used about all of them.”

A one-out single followed by a fielding error in the top of the second gave the Wildcats two runners in scoring position, and a two-run single by their next batter quickly put the Rebels in a 2-0 hole.

Gavin Sells led off the bottom of the third with a double after Wilson Central’s center and right fielders collided while trying to catch the hit, but Sells wouldn’t be able to move up any further as the Rebels remained scoreless.

The Wildcats added another run on a two-out single in the top of the fifth to make it a three-run game.

The Rebels put runners at the corners in the bottom of the sixth after Austin Roberts singled and Casen Gilliam reached base on an error. Gus Gardner then hit a ball to the outfield with two outs which seemed to be in no man’s land, but Wilson Central’s right fielder made a sliding catch for the out to prevent any runs from scoring.

The Rebels were retired in order in the bottom of the seventh to seal the loss by three.

Cullins pitched the first six innings of the contest with three strikeouts, six hits, one earned run and two unearned runs allowed.

Payton Miller pitched the final inning in relief with one strikeout, no hits and no runs allowed.

With the loss, the Rebels moved to 8-9 on the season.

They will next play Saturday at Grundy County High School. First pitch is scheduled for 1 p.m.