HANOVER, Ind. – The Franklin College baseball team claimed the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) regular season title and top seed in next week's conference tournament with a sweep of the Hanover Panthers in their final games of the regular season.

The Grizzlies finish the regular season with a 28-12 record and a 13-5 record in conference play, winning the league's regular season crown for the first time since 2018.

Game One: Franklin 9 – Hanover 6
The game stayed scoreless through three innings with both team's aces locked in. Hanover took the first lead of the day with a fourth inning home run but Franklin responded with two runs in the fifth, taking the lead for good on a Logan Demkovich RBI single. Franklin got two more runs in the seventh, but the Panther turned to the long ball to tie things up, with a three-run homer from Alex Christie tying things at 4-4.

Franklin took the lead right back with a three-run eighth and two more runs in the ninth to make it a 9-5 game. Hanover would bring the tying run to the plate in the final inning, but Alex Reinoehl nailed down the final out for his 10^th save of the year, becoming the first Grizzly pitcher to record double-digit saves in a season.

Demkovich drove in a pair of runs, with AJ Sanders and Matt Earley recording two hits each. Franklin took advantage of five Hanover errors, scoring five unearned runs. Nick McClanahan allowed three earned runs with seven strikeouts over six innings of work before giving way to Mitch Merica (4-1), who earned the win in relief.

Game Two: Franklin 11 – Hanover 6
Demkovich got the party started with a two-run home run in the first inning, giving him 19 for the year. Up by a run in the fifth, the Grizzlies tacked on four more runs with Earley, Tysen Lipscomb and Noah Wood all driving runs home to make it a 6-1 game.

Hanover plated three in the fifth to get back within a pair, but the Grizzlies rode back-to-back home runs from Case Starkey and Sanders to put the game out of reach. Demkovich, Lipscomb and Andrew Wallace capped the scoring with RBI in the final two innings and Chris Foote nailed down the final three outs to seal the conference title.

Damian Tillie got the start and went 4.1 innings before turning the ball over to Tyler Wick (1-0). Wick allowed one run over three innings with Foote slamming the door on the final 1.2 innings.

Demkovich and Sanders both had four hits and Noah Wood added three hits for the FC offense.

Up Next
The Grizzlies will have plenty of time to regroup ahead of their first HCAC Tournament game, which is set for May 12 in Kokomo, Ind.