Franklin-Simpson’s five seniors were only infants the last time the high school baseball team in Simpson County made it to the state tournament.

Senior center fielder Jackson Caudill was 2 years old when that happened. Fast forward to the beginning of the season and that same group, now seniors, had a feeling they would be a tough team to beat in Region 4 this year.

“I knew growing up playing together that we’d have a chance by the time I was a senior,” Caudill said.

Caudill, Ryan Dorris, Dawson Gardner, James Kummer and Hunter Janes helped Franklin-Simpson finally kick down a door they had been knocking on for several years.

Doing so against their district rival was sweet, but finally bringing a Region 4 baseball championship back to Franklin for the first time in 17 years was rewarding enough.

Powered by a home run and four RBIs from sophomore catcher Jacob Curtis, the Wildcats got the monkey off their back with a 7-4 victory over Logan County in the Region 4 championship game Wednesday night at Western Kentucky University’s Nick Denes Field.

The Wildcats (31-5) are headed back to the state tournament for the first time since 2000.

“It’s pretty incredible to think about and we’ve been working our butts off,” Caudill said.

“This senior core, we’re all best friends. We grew up together and we know how to play with each other and how to get everyone focused. It’s an awesome feeling when it all comes together.”

Franklin-Simpson made its first appearance back in the region final since 2007. Every year since then the Wildcats have consistently been one of the region’s better teams without a title to show for it. Since 2009, Franklin-Simpson has had just one season where it didn’t win at least 20 games, but hotter teams in the region – mainly out of District 14, besides Logan County in 2013 – have been there to put the Wildcats out.

Russell County eliminated them in 2013 and in the 2014 semifinals, then the Wildcats ran into better South Warren teams in 2015 and 2016.

First-year head coach Kyle Gammons rode those storms in the dugout as an assistant coach for 13 years under former longtime skipper Craig Delk.

Among the mass of celebrations on the field after the game on Wednesday, Gammons entertained a large gathering of congratulatory fans with the region title finally in their hands.

“It means a lot,” Gammons said. “It’s a lot of hard work put in by myself and a lot of other coaches that have been in this program. It’s a proud moment for our community, a lot of fan support for our small town and they come out and support us and it’s a big moment for them. It’s an exciting moment for this program and these kids.”

Gammons knew for Franklin-Simpson to finally win it again, it would have to beat its District 13 rival Logan County (24-11). The Wildcats lost twice to the Cougars in the regular season after falling to them in last year’s district tournament championship game. This year they took Ethan Smock, regarded as one of the region’s better pitchers, for 10 hits, including two homers, in a 9-0 district championship victory on May 23.

So, of course the Cougars responded with a combined score of 19-1 in two games to reach the region final while the Wildcats had to claw by Warren East, with help from the baseball gods, in a 3-2 semifinal victory.

In the rematch Wednesday, Logan County appeared on its way to a second region crown since 2013 by jumping out to a 3-0 lead thanks to two runs scored on Wildcat errors. Then luck favored Franklin-Simpson and carried Jacob Curtis’ full-count home run nearly 370 feet to bounce off the top left-center-field wall.

The ball bounced out of play and, fittingly, onto Avenue of Champions.

“We just knew luck was on our side,” Janes said. “It’s been amazing. All season long the community has been behind us and we kept telling ourselves we had a lot of talent coming back. At the beginning of the season, we just knew it was going to happen and we believed in ourselves.”{&end}