Franklin Reaches North Section Title Game

Josh Pigg stroked a two-out, full-count fastball to centerfield in the seventh inning to score Taylor Waters from third to tie the Sac-Joaquin Section playoff game with Davis at six runs each. He then pitched the final three innings in relief of Kyle Von Ruden and sewed up a berth in the North Division I championship game Friday with a 8-6, 8-inning win over the Blue Devils Tuesday night at Sacramento City College.

“All I was thinking was I needed a base hit,” the senior said. “I didn’t want to play in the losers’ bracket. I did get the base hit. Good players always come through in clutch time and that’s what I did.”

Pigg struck out seven in three innings of work as Franklin, for the first time ever, are in the Sac-Joaquin Section’s Division I North finals Friday.

In the bottom of the seventh inning hoping to put the game into extra innings, the potential winning run reached second base with one out. Pigg got Chris Gnos to ground out and then struck out Bobby Young to put the game into extra innings.

In the eighth, the Wildcats led off with a walk by Kyle Zanzi and Von Ruden was hit by a pitch. After a sacrifice bunt by Connor Adams and Nick Frei struck out, Waters stroked a two-out single to left to score Zanzi. A couple pitches later Von Ruden scored on a wild pitch.

Pigg’s little league dream then became a reality when he struck out Ben Eckles, Hayden Duer and Patrick Kreidler to end the game.

“When (his fastball and curveball) are working, then I can be dominate,” Pigg said.  And, that’s exactly the way he looked, too.

Now the Wildcats will take on the winner of Thursday’s contest between Vacaville and Davis. Franklin needs just one win Friday (game time 4 p.m.) in the double elimination tournament to move on to the Division I Section championship June 1 and 2 at the University of the Pacific against the South Section champion.