The Berries ran into some tough red birds Friday as they traveled up 322 to Cochranton. The Cardinals' bats were alive, including four home runs, as they were able to finish off the Berries 19-4  in four innings.

(Editor's note: This section was updated when we realized the games were incorrectly listed by us.)

Meanwhile, Rocky Gove dropped a tough one against Forest Area (12-1) in five innings. Oil City scored 4 against Jamestown but gave up 14.

Franklin Knights, however, continue to roll this season, remaining undefeated. They last played Thursday when they beat the Corry Beavers 11-6 in Erie County. They meet Sharon today for a morning conference game.

​Scores were provided by our friends at D9 and 10 Sports who keep tabs on all regional action.

Franklin has a pretty good ball team. I've managed to get to two games - one they were tied and the other they were in the lead. Shortly after my arrival, things unraveled for them culminating in two losses this week. 

​To be fair their opponents were no slouches, but yesterday I just got the vibe I wasn't helping them out so I boogied after a couple innings hoping maybe they'd bounce back.

​If it is me guys, I apologize, I don't mean it.

All kidding aside, this team does have skills and it will be interesting to see them play when the weather starts leveling out and the fly balls that land in the outfield don't go "thwapt" and sink into the mud.

They do have to get the meatier part of the bat on the center of the ball a little more consistently as well. But there is still plenty of season left.

The Knights are 4-3 in the region and 5-3 overall still but were 5-1 when the week began. So maybe chalk it up to just a bad week. There was a full moon after all.

They are expected to host Mercyhurst Prep and travel to Northeast this week, according to MaxPreps schedule, but as we've seen this spring, things can change.

So I bought a new camera. I've been doing this camera thing a long time so I know how to figure nearly everything out when things aren't going right. And boy things weren't going right.

I'm not a tech guy. I know the basics, I know how to make pictures the way people made pictures 70 years ago, mostly because when I started in photography not much had changed over the years in photography. During my time in this business auto focus became really good. Automatic exposures became really good. Digital image captures has far surpassed analog in low light especially. Technology has truly made photography easier.

Doesn't mean that photography is better, though it is in so many ways. But image making is still something that takes a great deal of research and working on your own vision. Otherwise its just snapshots and crossing of fingers.

But I digress... I'm learning the quirks of this camera and I found I need to truly channel my 18-year-old self where I didn't rely on the technology, but I relied only on my brain.

So I figured out that part of making pictures with this new machine and I thought I was good to go.

Then I plugged the camera into my computer and all of a sudden this fancy new camera takes higher resolution photos than I did before and now my computer just up and I can't load the photos easily on to my website.

This is where technology and me have words. And my words are not what you'd call pleasant.

So long story short (not really) I posted some track pictures earlier today and the one above was not included. It wasn't included because, even though I felt I took more photos yesterday, there was no evidence to support that thought. 
​
​Here is to hoping I can take this new camera to make pretty cool photos and not get to frustrated with a world moving too fast for this aging photographer.

After the baseball game Wednesday, I decided to see what was happening at the track, but only had a few minutes so I grabbed a few shots.

​Our good friends at The Derrick had a track and field round-up today with some photos from ever-present Christy Fackler. They reported Meadville boys and girls both won against the Knights.

Franklin's Adam Luther got in a few jumps before he headed to Tennesee to use his wits in the national academic games with his other Franklin team. You can read about that here.

A pitcher's duel for sure. Franklin's Luke Guth was firing strong. Titusville's Hunter Thomas was doing the same.

It sorta fell apart slightly in the fifth inning when Titusville got a runner on first. They then sent him to second on a steal attempt. The throw from the catcher found its way into the outfield. The Titusville runner, for some reason, decided to head to third. A throw that arrived in plenty of time, but was not an easy one to handle got passed the third baseman and trickled into the Knight's dugout which allowed the run to score.

It was enough to shake the Knights and a second run was added in the frame before Guth retired the side.

Franklin got a few batters on base but struggled to get that hit when they needed it and was able to only score once.

Final score Titusville over Franklin, 2-1. 

See more photos below and even more at sayerrich.zenfolio.com/p690862509

Oil City Junior Legion Baseball will hold sign-ups and tryouts from 7 to 8 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday, April 26 and 28 at the Oil City High School field. Tryouts will start immediately after players sign in.

The team is open to players who live in Oil City, Cranberry and Titusville school districts and will be age 13 to 16 as of Dec. 31, 2022. The cost is $90. Games will be played in the evenings during the week.

For more information, contact Andrew Brosius at 814-516-1066 or Mike Rybak at 814-758-0294.

Rocky Grove head volleyball coach Mike Stevenson has picked up where he left off with the girls squad last fall. The first year head boys coach has the Orioles playing solid volleyball and holding a 2-1 record.

Tuesday they took on a disorganized Farrell team at home winning in three sets, 25-20, 25-11 and 25-19.

​Minus one of their top players, Brett Stevenson who is in Mexico this week, the team seemed a little disorganized and out of sorts themselves but pulled things together for long rallies when needed. "Definitely not one of our better performances, We played much better last week," Coach Stevenson said via text after the match.

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Franklin plays Slippery Rock tomorrow at home and then Grove City away on Thursday.

Oil City will play Slippery Rock on Thursday and Titusville next week.