DEFIANCE, Ohio – The Franklin College baseball team resumed Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) play on Sunday (Apr. 10) afternoon with two road games against the Defiance Yellow Jackets.

The Grizzlies (20-6, 5-1 HCAC) got two brilliant starting pitching efforts as part of a sweep of the Yellow Jackets (6-14, 1-5 HCAC), taking wins by scores of 10-2 and 7-4 in 10 innings in game two.

Game One: Franklin 10 – Defiance 2
In a game that featured two of the league's top strikeout pitchers, the Grizzlies struck first in the top of the third inning when Logan Demkovich clubbed his 13^th home run of the year to spot the Griz a 2-0 lead. Defiance cut the lead in half with a run in the fifth but the Grizzlies put the game out of reach with RBI doubles from Matt Earley and Sean Sullivan in the sixth that made it a 5-1 game.

AJ Sanders knocked in a run with a seventh inning triple and did so again in the ninth inning. Tysen Lipscomb, Demkovich and Noah Wood would also bring home runs in the final inning.

Nick McClanahan (4-0) was brilliant over six innings of work, scattering three hits and striking out eight Yellow Jackets. Chris Foote, Alex Reinoehl and Gavin White all recorded an inning of work in relief.

Game Two: Franklin 7 – Defiance 4 (10 inn.)
Junior Jackson Young put together the best outing of his career as the game two starter. The Greenwood, Ind.-native allowed just four hits and struck out a career-high eight over seven innings on his way to a no-decision.

Franklin got two runs in the second and one run in both the sixth and eighth innings to make it 4-0 after 7.5 innings. But the Yellow Jackets got to the Grizzly bullpen with three runs in the eighth and one more in the ninth to send things to extras.

With one out in the 10^th, Sullivan roped a double into the gap and Adam Taylor followed with a two-bagger of his own for the go-ahead run. Taylor would score on a wild pitch and Colby Reed brought in a run with a sac fly to cap the scoring.

Reinoehl (1-1) picked up the win after allowing two hits over three innings in relief. Reed drove in four runs to lead the Grizzly offense with Sanders and Sullivan recording two hits each.

Up Next
The Grizzlies step out of conference play on Wednesday (Apr. 13) afternoon, when they head to Sauget, Ill. to take on #12-ranked Webster University. First pitch is set for 3:00 p.m.