KOKOMO, Ind. – The Franklin baseball team faced off with the Anderson Ravens in the opening game of the 2023 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) Baseball Tournament championship series on Saturday (May 13) afternoon looking to clinch their third conference tournament title.
 
The Grizzlies (32-11) and Ravens (27-18) will meet one more time in the 'if necessary' game after Anderson staged a 6-5 comeback win to keep their tournament hopes alive.
 
Franklin took the game's first lead in the bottom of the third on a two-run blast from Sean Sullivan but the Ravens got both runs back in the fifth. A throwing error allowed another Franklin run to score in the sixth and RBIs from Jonathon LaGuire-Cruz and Dyllan Redmon in the eighth sent the Grizzlies into the final inning with a 5-2 lead.
 
But the Ravens, who rallied from six runs down in the day's first game to keep their season alive, plated four runs in the top of the ninth to take their first lead of the game. The Grizzlies put two runners on in the bottom of the inning, but their comeback bid came up short.
 
Tysen Lipscomb went 3-for-5 at the plate to lead the offense and both LaGuire-Cruz and AJ Sanders had two hits each. LaGuire-Cruz got the start and struck out four over five innings before being relieved by Will Butts, Sam Peck and Maddox Manes (7-1).
 
The two sides will meet in a winner-take-all game on Sunday (May 14) at noon, with Franklin looking for their first HCAC Tournament title since 2019 and the Ravens in search of their first since 2015.