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The Franklin County Rebels lost to the Coffee County Raiders 10-2 at home Saturday in an elimination semifinal game for the District 6-4A tournament.

The Rebels did all of their scoring in the first two innings while the Raiders steadily pulled away over the course of the day as the Rebels were eliminated from the bracket.

Franklin County head baseball coach Mike Crossland said that starting pitcher Josiah Cullins turned in a quality performance, but missed chances on both sides of the ball hurt the Rebels throughout the day.

“(Cullins) gave us a good enough chance to win the ballgame. We just didn’t play behind him and didn’t get big hits when we needed them,” he said.

Crossland then paid tribute to his graduating seniors before referring to the future of the program.

“Right now, it’s going to be a coaching moment for our younger kids, knowing what it takes to get through a tournament like this,” he said. “We’ve got a good group coming back, and we’re going to be competitive and really good for a long time.”

The Rebels quickly put a runner in scoring position as Sam Vincent got hit by a pitch to start the game and moved to second after Austin Roberts drew a walk.

Brayden Henley then hit a single through the left side of the infield, and Vincent was awarded home plate on an obstruction call after Coffee County’s third basemen collided with him while he was rounding the bag to give the Rebels a quick 1-0 advantage.

The lead would be short-lived, however, as the Raiders hit back-to-back home runs, including a two-run shot, in the bottom of the first to flip the scoreboard in their favor by a 3-1 margin.

The Rebels got one of those runs back in the top of the second as Wyatt Lowe singled with two outs, moved to second on a walk drawn by Vincent and scored off of an error on a ball hit by Roberts to put the score at 3-2.

The Rebels loaded the bases in the top of the third on singles by Payton Miller and Graysen McNeese and a walk to Gavin Sells with one out, but a popout and a fielder’s choice ended the inning before any of the runners could score.

The Raiders scored one run in the third, two in the fourth and three in the fifth to slowly build their advantage and put the Rebels in a 9-2 hole late. The Rebels committed at least one error in each of those middle innings to extend the frames and create more scoring opportunities for Coffee County.

The Rebels were able to get runners into scoring position in the fifth and sixth innings but they were unsuccessful in bringing the runners around to score both times.

The Raiders tacked on one more run in the bottom of the sixth to push the deficit up to eight runs going into the final frame.

The Rebels were unable to make a dent in the deficit in the top of the seventh as they lost by eight.

Cullins pitched the first 4 2-3 innings for the Rebels with one strikeout, nine hits, four earned runs and five unearned runs allowed.

Gilliam pitched the final 1 1-3 innings in relief with one strikeout, two hits and one run allowed.

With the loss, the Rebels finished their season with a record of 12-16.