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The Twisters (11-17), who once appeared dead in the Southern Division playoff race, are now just one game behind Danbury for the final postseason berth. They also have to overcome Berkshire, which is a half a game ahead of them.
Torrington has now won three straight games and improved to 4-9 at home.
"I knew it was going to be a good night when I got my fastball and slider over the plate," said Franco, who walked three as he improved to 2-2. "I was then able to throw my change-up, which was dirty tonight. My bread and butter is my change-up-fastball combination and if I get those over, I’m going to be successful."
For the first time this season, the Twisters hit two home runs in one inning, courtesy of Nate Jaggers and Eli Iorg in the second.
Jaggers led off the inning with his homer off Manchester starter and loser Ryan DiPietro, a blast to left-center field that Manchester thought hit the top of the wall and was still in play. The call was ruled a home run because the ball hit the fence behind the wall and bounced back on the field.
After DiPietro retired the next two hitters, he hit Seth Iorg and walked Brian Cavanaugh, setting the stage for Eli Iorg, who deposited an 0-2 pitch well over the left field fence to give Torrington a 4-0 lead.
"It was definitely hard me for to swing, because I had just got stitches in my hand," said Iorg. "(DiPietro) kept throwing me the outside pitch and I knew if he threw it again, I’d hit it well."
Franco had at least one strikeout in eight different innings and struck out Billy Mottram and Tim Binkoski three times each. Will Rice, Derek Litke and Brian Hansen all struck out twice for the Silkworms.
"I can’t say enough about T.J. Franco," Twisters manager Gregg Hunt said. "He had tremendous control all night and did a great job hitting his spots."
"I told the guys before the game if they scored four runs, we’re going to win tonight," Franco said. "Once we scored the fours runs in the second, they looked at me and I said it was over."
Torrington, which has seemed to catch every bad break this season, had one go it’s way in the fifth. After Manchester’s Brian Hansen walked with two outs, he was ruled out for hitting out of order.
In the eighth, Matt Oxendine capped off the evening with a towering home run to left that made the score 5-0.
"Every one is having fun around here right now," Eli Iorg said. "This is our last chance to make a run for the playoffs and we’re all ready to make a big push for it."
"This was certainly one of the better games we’ve played all year from an all-round standpoint," Hunt said. "Now, we have to keep this going. These few wins have gotten us back in the middle of things and we have to keep focus."
