Daily Pilot Female Athlete of the Week: Franson’s fabulous finale

Only an hour prior, Corona del Mar High senior Brooke Franson had been preparing to embark on her final high school softball adventure alone.

Well, not exactly, but there would be no other representatives from her team.

It was 20 minutes before the final game of the Orange County Softball Coaches Senior All-Star Classic. Franson would be featured with the rest of the deserving cast set to play in the Central versus Coast matchup.

This season was full of surprises for the Sea Kings, and what led up to the start of Tuesday night’s affair at Bill Barber Park in Irvine was no exception for Franson.

She was asked in the pregame if her coach, Jordann Wakabayashi, knew that she was coaching the game. As it turned out, neither player or coach was aware of this fact, but Wakabayashi was already en route to the game.

“I had no idea,” Wakabayashi said. “Brooke called me 20 minutes before, and she was like, ‘Did you know that you’re coaching?’

“I’m very glad that I put on a CdM shirt and shorts and was ready to go because that could have been really interesting.”

Wakabayashi stood in the third-base coaching box when her star shortstop dug in at the plate with the bases loaded. The at-bat was reminiscent of Franson’s whole year.

She took the ball where it was pitched, driving it through the right side of the infield to bring in two runs.

“I worked with her a lot last year about hitting the ball where it was pitched,” Wakabayashi said of Franson. “She hated inside pitches last year. She still doesn’t like them, but she is more confident when she goes up there, knowing that she probably will get an inside pitch.

“This year, she had an inside pitch, and she was turning on it.”

That was just the opening act in what would turn out to be an MVP performance. The Manhattanville College signee added a run-scoring single in the third. She also pinch ran and scored in the inning, before adding a walk in the sixth.

The Coast All-Stars held on to win the game, 9-8, over the Central roster.

“It was amazing,” Franson said of winning the MVP. “My first thought was that is just the best way to go out to end my season, to end my high school career. I don’t think I can end it any better, to be honest.”

One might describe the Sea Kings’ season as one of ‘culture shock.’ Corona del Mar had not won a Pacific Coast League game since 2008.

The longevity of the streak had some accepting the norm of mediocrity. Franson did not expect to be in contention for a playoff spot, let alone be an All-Star.

Corona del Mar won its first league game, stunning Beckman, 7-6, with three runs in the seventh inning. Franson scored the winning run in that game, bringing the CdM program out of the shadow of eight years of darkness.

“We went into this like it was going to be another season, like another long season,” Franson said. “Then a couple weeks before our season, we were like, ‘We might be able to do this,’ because our team was really good.

“My favorite moment was scoring the winning run against Beckman because that was the moment when we broke the seal. ‘We’re going to win games. We’re going to win some league games.’”

The Sea Kings started league 2-0. They swept University and added a road win over eventual league champion Woodbridge. Corona del Mar had its first winning season at 14-13 overall, 4-6 in league, since the 2006 campaign.

Where CdM found itself in the playoff picture, and was most likely only denied because there were no at-large spots available in Division 6, the Battle of the Bay used to be the marker of a successful season. The rivalry game against Newport Harbor remains significant, but the Sea Kings were a little more relaxed about the result in the second tilt this season.

The teams split their meetings this year. Corona del Mar defeated Newport Harbor in the Savanna Showcase, 8-6. By the time the regularly scheduled game came around, the Sea Kings were in the thick of the playoff hunt.

“When we played them in the tournament and we beat them, that was like our special moment, Franson said. “When they beat us for Battle of the Bay, I think we were all kind of relaxed anyway.”

In other years, the Battle of the Bay meant everything to Franson. In her sophomore year, the Sea Kings won the game after the teams went to International Tiebreaker Rules in a 9-8, eight-inning contest.

“That was amazing,” Franson recalled. “We may not have won any league games that year, but winning Battle of the Bay was the best thing that we could have achieved that season. It was at home, so it was even more special.”

Franson posted a .580 batting average this season, with 59.6 percent of her hits going for extra bases.

Brooke Franson

Born: Feb. 11, 1999

Hometown: Newport Beach

Height: 5 feet 9

Weight: 140 pounds

Sport: Softball

Year: Senior

Coach: Jordann Wakabayashi

Favorite food: Macaroni and cheese

Favorite movie: “The Giver”

Favorite athletic moment: Her favorite athletic moment came when she scored the winning run against Beckman in the Sea Kings’ first Pacific Coast League game this season. It was CdM’s first league win since 2008.

Week in review: Franson was named the MVP of the Orange County Softball Seniors Coast versus Central All-Star Game at Irvine’s Bill Barber Park on Tuesday. The senior went two for two with a walk and three RBI.

Andrew.Turner@latimes.com

Twitter: @ProfessorTurner