The pitcher coined 'Soup' nearly dishes out a no-hitter in Franklin's win over St. John's

FRANKLIN — Move aside hamburgers and hot dogs. Take a seat macaroni and potato salad.

On Monday, the top item on the Memorial Day menu for the Franklin High baseball team was soup.

Courtesy of Austin Campbell.

The Franklin High junior left-hander, whose teammates call him “Soup” due to his last name, dished out a stellar performance on the mound as Campbell nearly collected a no-hitter in a dominating 6-0 win over Saint John’s (Shrewsbury) at Franklin High.

“That’s probably one of the best grooves I've gotten in in my entire career,” Campbell said.

“Soup had a great game,” Franklin senior captain Eisig Chin said. “I think it was one of his better ones. He was dealing to everyone; he was dominating today.”

“He was electric,” Franklin head coach Zach Brown added.

Following the top of the fourth inning, when Campbell retired his 12th straight batter, chatter started to make its way through the Franklin dugout that Campbell had a perfect stat line.

“When you get to that halfway point, you start thinking,” Brown said.

“I tried to black it out and focus in on keep getting outs,” Campbell said.

For two more innings, the Franklin lefty remained perfect. Then in the final frame, after Campbell retired the first 18 batters, he issued his first walk. Two batters later, following a double play, Campbell needed just one more out to secure a no-hitter.

But a groundball from Saint John’s Jack Forgues found the hole between the Franklin third baseman and shortstop, and delivered the Pioneers their first hit of the game. Two batters later, Campbell wrapped up the shutout win with a strikeout on his 92nd pitch.

His final pitching line: 7 innings, 1 hit, 2 walks and 13 strikeouts.

“Today was fun,” Brown said. “When he has all three pitches going and locating like that it makes it really tough as an opposing hitter.”

With the win, Franklin finishes its regular season with a 19-3 record and heads into the MIAA tournament as one of the top teams in Division 1.

So Campbell, just curious what your favorite soup is while we're on the topic of food?

“Chicken noodle,” he said.

As for the rest of the Panthers?

“Italian wedding,” senior captain Alfred Mucciarone said.

“Clam chowder,” senior captain Jase Lyons said.

“Chicken noodle soup,” Chin concluded.

On Monday, there was plenty of soup to go around for the Franklin High baseball team.

This article originally appeared on The Milford Daily News: Franklin's Austin Campbell nearly throws no-hitter in baseball win