The Yreka Lady Miners won the Marble Mountain Scramble softball tourney in Etna, last Saturday. Yreka coach Troy Graves told his team at Monday’s practice, “It was a great team effort. Everyone contributed at some point during the tournament.”

One of the strongest individual contributions came from Yreka pitcher Beth Franklin. Franklin was in the circle for three of the four Lady Miner wins, including the championship against Etna.

Franklin’s first game in the tournament was a 10-0 shutout of Burney. She pitched five innings, giving up three hits and a walk, while fanning seven batters.

Game-two was an intense, hard-fought, nail-biter against Mt. Shasta. Franklin went the full seven innings, allowing one earned run and four hits. She didn’t issue any free passes and struck out seven, in the 2-1 win.

In the championship game aginst Etna, a 5-0 win, Franklin allowed four hits and a walk. She struck out nine batters in seven innings.

So let’s see, that’s three games, three wins, two shutouts, 19 innings pitched, one run, 11 hits, two walks, and 23 strike outs. If you’re into the averages thing, that translates to an ERA of .368, under four hits per game, less than a walk a game, and about 8 1/2 strike outs per seven innings. Not bad for a day’s work.

Franklin and her teammates earned a tournament championship, championship T-shirts, and bragging rights. And now, Franklin can add an Impact Player Award to her collection.

The Impact Player Award is given on a monthly basis and goes to Siskiyou County high school athletes, male or female, that have had a significant impact on the success of their team. I select the players based on my own observations, often in consultation with the player’s coaches.

A total of four awards may be given each month and are not school specific; they can go to a player at any school that Siskiyou Youth covers. Winners receive Impact T-shirts that were designed by Golden Grotto. The T-shirts and award are cosponsored by Siskiyou Youth and NorCal Classic Hits radio 102.3/101.7.