HADLEY – A near-milestone performance from Hopkins Academy pitcher Cassie Dion wasn’t enough as the Golden Hawks softball team fell to Franklin Tech, 4-2, on Wednesday. Dion needed eight strikeouts against the Eagles to become the first player in school history to reach 400 for her career, however the Hawks’ ace came up one short to sit at 399 career Ks following the defeat.

Franklin Tech scored a pair of runs in the fourth and fifth innings to lead 4-0, after the first three innings zipped by with little action. Hopkins cut its deficit in half during the fifth inning, but Eagles pitcher Hannah Gilbert shut the door the rest of the way, marking a season-series split between the two Franklin County League East powers.

“We’ve had a long win streak and sometimes it’s hard when you start getting down in a game to keep your heads up and keep trying to go forward,” Hawks head coach Lindsey Lord said. “I think that after they got the four runs, we came out still with our heads up and got another two runs. We ended up still coming up a little bit short, but I think that we did a good job keeping the momentum throughout the game.”

Hopkins were winners of 11 consecutive games before the loss to Franklin Tech on Wednesday, including a 5-3 victory over the Eagles on April 17.

“They’re a solid team, they make the plays they’re supposed to make and they got kids that play a lot of softball and we’re starting to hit our stride here at the right time,” Franklin Tech head coach Joe Gamache said. “We’ve got some senior leadership, but we got a lot of young kids that are filling big roles for us and they’re starting to get more comfortable and the hope is we can make a nice little run here at the end of the year.”

The Eagles extended their winning streak to seven games in the win over the Hawks. Gilbert was fantastic in the circle for Franklin Tech as No. 9 accumulated 13 strikeouts and limited Hopkins to just three hits. Gilbert struck out the side during the seventh inning to close out the victory in commanding fashion.

“She’s been in a nice groove,” Gamache said. “Everything’s started to work for her. The weather has warmed up and her pitching performance has warmed up as well. It’s been nice.”

For Hopkins (12-3), Lord highlighted Alayna Bailey’s play in the field, plus Isabella Bramucci’s performance at the plate, to go along with Dion’s solid start from the rubber.

“Alayna certainly stood out to me today,” Lord said. “I think she did everything she possibly could to get the balls on the field with her... four or five dives that she made. I think overall her, Cassie always comes out very consistent and our outfielders did a good job of keeping the ball in front of them and trying to keep down as many runs as they could. I think Bella came out with some good hits, I know Olivia [Earle] had some. Honestly, there were quite a few players that got some good hits, here and there, just not enough to fully complete it though, unfortunately.”

Bramucci and Earle each earned one hit for the Hawks. Earle drove in their second run of the afternoon with a single during the fifth. Bailey scored Hopkins first run after reaching base on a walk from Gilbert as the first batter of the inning for the Hawks.

Gilbert helped her own cause with the bat, concluding the game with two hits and one RBI. Gilbert kickstarted Franklin Tech’s scoring during the fourth inning, crossing the plate and breaking the deadlock on a RBI fielder’s choice. Sandra Johnson doubled the Eagles’ advantage with an RBI single later that inning, before Franklin Tech pushed its lead to 4-0 during the fifth with an RBI double from Gilbert and an RBI single from Kylee Gamache.

The Eagles (11-3) put together seven hits, with all seven coming in a three-inning span between the fourth and sixth. Franklin Tech has averaged eight runs across its current seven-game win streak.

Dion will have another chance to claim the career milestone on home soil when Hopkins hosts Pioneer on Monday at 4 p.m.

The Eagles return to action Thursday at Frontier.