HANOVER, Ind. – The Franklin College softball team needed one win on Saturday (May 8) to secure a spot in the post-season when they took on the Hanover Panthers in their regular season finale.

The Grizzlies (19-13, 8-8 HCAC) mounted a furious seventh-inning rally that fell just short in a 6-4 loss in the opener. Game two saw Franklin take the lumber to the Panthers (12-17, 9-7 HCAC) late, scoring 10 runs over the final two innings in a 12-2 win that secured Franklin's place in next week's Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) Tournament.

Game One: Hanover 6 – Franklin 4
After four scoreless frames to open the contest, Hanover broke the ice with a five-run fifth inning and added to their lead with another run in the bottom of the sixth. After lying dormant for the first six innings, Franklin began to string together hits in their final at-bat.

With the bases loaded and one out, Annie Kluemper took a pitch off the foot for the first FC run. Abby Hickson followed two batters later with a two-out RBI single and Shelby Crockett plated a run with Franklin's sixth hit of the inning to cut the Hanover lead to a pair. Makayla Plymale stepped in with the bags full and sent a deep fly ball into the right-center field gap that was hauled in to end the rally.

Alisha Burch (10-6) retired the first 13 batters of the day before running into trouble in the fifth. Burch allowed three earned runs with two strikeouts in a complete game effort. Franklin finished the game with 13 hits with five players recording two base knocks.

Game Two: Franklin 12 – Hanover 2 (6 inn.)
The Grizzly offense picked up where they left off in game one, getting two runs in the first courtesy of a run-scoring ground out from Natalie Weber and an RBI double from Crockett. Hanover countered with two runs in the second inning, but would go silent at the plate the rest of the way.

Franklin's offense would be retired in order in the both the third and fourth innings, respectively, before breaking things open in a big way in the fifth. Back to back one-out doubles from Weber and Abby Hickson led to a run and the latter would score on a perfectly executed double-steal later in the inning. Crockett added to the lead with a sac fly to make it a 5-2 game.

The top of the sixth saw Franklin rattle off nine hits that led to seven Grizzly runs with seven different batters bringing a run across, all with two outs in the inning. Kluemper, Weber, Crockett, Plymale, Sydney Bostic, Kennedy Bond and Samantha Cain all knocked in runs and the Panthers went down quietly in the sixth to close things out.

Delanie Gourley (9-6) was brilliant in the must-win game, allowing two runs on five hits in a complete game effort. Weber paced the team with three hits, one of six Grizzlies to have multiple hits in game two.

Up Next
Franklin will enter the 2021 HCAC Tournament as the No. 5 seed and will play either Hanover or Anderson in the first game of the tournament. A game date, location and start time will be announced in the coming days.