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Box Score 2 FRANKLIN, Ind. – The Franklin College softball team continued an eight-game homestand on Saturday (Mar. 13) afternoon, hosting the Bluffton Beavers for a pair of scheduled non-conference games against the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) foe.
The Grizzlies (5-3) got a dominant pitching performance from Alisha Burch and used a big fifth inning to run-rule the Beavers (0-2), 9-0. Game two saw Franklin jump out to a big lead before having to hold off a late Bluffton rally to hold on for an 8-5 win.
Game One: Franklin 9 – Bluffton 0 (5 inn.)
After squandering a bases-loaded opportunity in the first inning, Franklin broke through with a pair of runs in the bottom of the third. With two on and one out, Emily Streib roped a single into right center field that plated Sydney Rodeghier for the first run of the game. One batter later, Abby Hickson doubled the lead on a fielder's choice that scored Natalie Weber from third.
Two innings later the Grizzlies brought an end to the game with a seven-run fifth frame. Hickson and Shelby Crockett recorded RBI singles, two runs scored via Bluffton mistakes and Natalie Weber closed things out with a two-run double with two outs in the inning.
Burch (3-1) didn't walk a batter and scattered four hits while matching a career-high with seven strikeouts for her second shutout of the year. Hickson, Streib and Annie Kluemper all went 2-for-3 in the game.
Game Two: Franklin 8 – Bluffton 5
Bluffton claimed their first lead of the day with a run in the first, but it proved to be short-lived. Weber knocked in the tying run with a double in the bottom of the first and both Streib and Hickson followed with RBI. Hickson plated another run in the third and Weber made it 5-1 with an RBI double in the fifth.
Weber, Kluemper and Sydney Rodeghier all knocked in runs in the sixth, stretching the lead to 8-1 with one inning to go.
The Beavers would show signs of life with two outs in the seventh, scoring four runs on five straight singles before their run was extinguished.
Delanie Gourley (2-1) went 6 2/3 innings, striking out a career-high five batters. Freshman Christina Black recorded her first career save after recording the game's final out.
The Grizzlies wrap up their homestand on Friday, Mar. 19, when they welcome Greenville University to Behrens Field.
