Great Crossing featured five freshmen in its softball starting lineup Thursday night against Boyle County.

It certainly doesn’t hurt when one of those newcomers is a center fielder who transferred into your program after catching a future University of Kentucky pitcher for two years.

Now center fielder for the undefeated Warhawks, Aevea Mosley-Franklin has emerged as an absolute pest at the top of the order.

Her bunts in the third and fifth innings created the commotion that led to go-ahead runs, the latter putting GC on top to stay in a 4-2 victory.

“She is so fast and so gifted athletically. She’s starting to figure it out,” GC coach Don Murphy said. “She was kind of raw when we first got her here. She got by on just a lot of athletic ability.”

Mosley-Franklin leads the Warhawks (5-0) with 12 hits, 10 runs scored and a lofty .667 batting average.

As a seventh grader at Lexington Catholic in 2024, she batted .400, stole 21 bases and called the signals for fireballer Abby Hammond on an 11th Region championship team.

After another season in the Knights’ lineup, she joined the promising GC freshman class that includes slugger and pitcher Maleigha McKinney, first base Molly Parker, third base Jakelyn Hudnall and right field Juice Walker.

“She absorbs everything like a sponge,” Murphy said. “She’s very coachable. When she can do stuff like that and put the ball in play, I feel pretty good about our team.”

Mosley-Franklin adjusted after a rare three-pitch strikeout in her first plate appearance, dropping a successful bunt down the third base line with one out in the third inning.

That single turned into two bases when the Rebels threw wide of the bag. She scored to make it 2-1 on Boyle County’s errant attempt to retire Brooke Smith at first after a dropped third strike.

The game was tied again, 2-2, when Kyleigh Harrison bunted for a base hit to lead off the fifth.

Boyle County mishandled Mosley-Franklin’s bunt back to the circle. Harrison scored all the way from first in the continuing action. Mosley-Franklin wound up at third and scored on Smith’s bunt single.

“We did a good job,” Murphy said. “We took extra bags when we had it. Put a lot of pressure on them with the small ball. We’ve got a lot of speed, a lot of girls that can move.”

McKinney went the distance for Great Crossing, toughening whenever Boyle County put runners aboard. She rang up all five of her strikeouts with runners on base, including three to end innings.

Ava Collins picked off the Rebels’ runner at first and McKinney whiffed two after Boyle County had two on with nobody out in the sixth.

“If she can minimize walks, we’re going to be in a lot of games. I think she had one walk and one hit batter today,’ Murphy said. “She’s growing up. Great effort by her. She didn’t have her best day offensively, but she did what we needed her to do, and that’s minimize damage in the circle.”

Great Crossing tied the game at 1 in the bottom of the second on Collins’ sacrifice fly after a triple by Dakota Mullins.

Presley Moore and Miley Finley each went 3-for-4 to lead the Rebels, who out-hit the Warhawks, nine to six.

Boyle County’s Abby Peavler struck out 11.

“There are times when we’re not hitting. That’s a good pitcher. She threw it very well. She had us off-balance for the first inning or so,” Murphy said. “Dakota got that big triple, and we got that run in. That’s big, and sometimes that stuff gets lost in the scorebook.”

Great Crossing’s home game against Male was delayed by rain from Friday to Monday after press time. Murphy coached Male from 2023 to ’25 after stints as head coach at Frederick Douglass and as an assistant at Scott County.