The surprises with the Franklin softball team started on the first day of the season.
“We all, at the start of the year, look at the schedule and say, ‘Okay, we could lose this game, we could lose that,’ ” Coach Skip DuBois said. “We’ll probably be 10-6 or 11-5, and that’s kind of where I thought we’d be as a team.”
The Golden Tornadoes opened with a 2-0 victory over rival Gilford, and DuBois knew right away that he’d have to reassess his team’s chances.
“And right off the bat, we beat Gilford in the first game. And it’s like, ‘Oh my God.’
“When we beat Prospect Mountain (on May 23) … I called them overachievers, because as individual entities, we’ve got some good athletes here. But I just didn’t think that we would have the whole chemistry and camaraderie.”
The Tornadoes haven’t stopped impressing their coach, and now are one win away from wrapping up what’s been a dream season. Franklin, the second seed in the Division III tournament, takes an 18-1 record into today’s championship at Plymouth State University against undefeated White Mountains, a state finalist five years running.
“Our goal was to get to the final four, and anything beyond that, at the time, we kind of felt would be gravy,” said DuBois, who’s trying to guide his team to its first title since winning four straight from 2007-10. “These girls, they make us believers. These girls are a good softball team.”
So is the team the Tornadoes will be playing. The lone unbeaten team in the division at 19-0, White Mountains won the title in 2012, reached the final the next three seasons and booked another return trip this season by holding 13 of its opponents to one or no runs.
The Spartans will be facing a Franklin team, however, that’s comfortable winning both slugfests and pitchers’ duels. A lineup led by Rachael Capri, Hailey Haskins and Hanne Nichols can rap base hits with the best of them, but every Tornadoes hitter is also ready to drop a bunt down if it becomes clear one run is going to make the difference.
“Everybody understands their role and what they’re accomplishing by getting that bunt down,” DuBois said. “They’re not looking at it as ‘I made an out.’ (Instead, it’s) ‘I did my job.’ And sometimes it takes a while to instill that in kids.”
At the heart of the Franklin operation, however, is the battery. Kaylee Marshe dominated during the regular season, going 10-1 with a 1.00 ERA and 129 strikeouts in 70 innings. She’s done it while throwing to Anna Doherty, perhaps the team’s best player with a batting average over .500 and six home runs on the season.
Her greatest contribution, however, has come on the defensive side. Doherty calls each of Marshe’s pitches, a responsibility DuBois has both given her and knows better than to challenge.
“Several times (in the semifinals) I was about to call out to her and give her a signal for a certain pitch,” he said. “All of a sudden I saw her set up, and it was like she was reading my mind. I said ‘I didn’t need to worry about this.’ And Kaylee has a lot of confidence in Anna.”
It’s representative of the trust the players have in themselves. That trust allowed the Tornadoes to pull off wins in a quarterfinal game they trailed 4-3 and a semifinal game they trailed 2-1, and it’s been the trait of the team that, in a year of surprises, has impressed DuBois the most.
“Every year, usually when you’ve got 13 or 14 young ladies, there’s always other issues, coming from school, coming from jobs, coming from boyfriends, whatever,” he said. “None of that. If it has existed this year, I haven’t seen it. I haven’t seen an inkling. The freshmen are treated just the same as the seniors.”
The result is a talented, tight-knit bunch – one that is one victory away from a special end to what’s already been a special season.
“They’ve earned it,” DuBois said. “I said it to them before … ‘It’s about you guys. You guys are the ones that earned the right to be here. Not us as coaches. You’ve earned this right to be here.’ ”
(Drew Bonifant can be reached at 369-3340, abonifant@cmonitor.com or on Twitter at @dbonifant)