GLEN CARBON - Nick Franklin hit a pair of home runs as part of a three hit, five RBI day at the plate, while A.J. Sutberry and Jackson Rodgers also hit home runs as Father McGivney Catholic won its 28th straight game on Thursday afternoon, defeating Civic Memorial 11-3 at Griffins Field.
The Griffins haven't lost since a 9-0 defeat at Marquette Catholic Mar. 23, which made McGivney 1-3 at the time. It's been an incredible journey thus far, and head coach Chris Erwin and his players are enjoying the ride.
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"We've been locked in and stayed there," Erwin said. "We've actually been locked in since the Marquette game in March. It's been a total team effort in the way we play."
Erwin also had very kind words for the Eagles and their veteran head coach, Nick Smith.
"It was a super exciting game," Erwin said. "CM has a pretty nice team, well-coached and a good program. Nick is a first class guy and he runs a first class program."
After CM took a 1-0 lead in the top of the second, the Griffins countered with two runs of their own in the home half, then took a 5-2 lead after three and extended the lead to 9-3 after five. McGivney then added two more runs in the sixth to take the 11-3 win.
To go along with Franklin's day at the plate, Rodgers and Sutberry both hit two-run shots for their only hits and RBIs and both Jacob McKee and Gabe Smith had a hit and RBI.
Both Bryer Arview and Sam Buckley had two hits each for the Eagles, while Noah Peterson had a hit and two RBIs, Tommy Strubhart came up with a hit and RBI and Peyton Keller, Luke Parmentier and Ben Werts also had hits.
Smith went five innings on the mound, striking out eight for the Griffins, while Ryker Keller fanned three. Matthew Haar had six strikeouts for CM.
The Eagles are now 9-16 and host Carbondale at the Bethalto Sports Complex on Tuesday, play at Herrin May 19, both games starting at 4:30 p.m., and meet Effingham in a doubleheader May 20 at home, with start times 4:30 p.m and 6:30 p.m. The Griffins are now 29-3 and have an important game at Maroa-Forsyth Friday at 4:30 p.m., then host Cahokia in the home finale Saturday at 11 a.m. With the playoffs approaching, Erwin and his team are taking a simple and time-honored approach.
"We're just taking it one game at a time," Erwin said. "We haven't talked much about the streak, we've just taken it one at a time. We're really looking forward to it. I'm fired up, the guys are fired up. It's time to go."
Dan Brannan also contributed to this story.
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