DEFIANCE, Ohio – The Franklin softball team finished up the regular season on Sunday (May 7) afternoon, sweeping the Defiance Yellow Jackets.
The Grizzlies (28-12, 11-5 HCAC) rallied for a 4-2 comeback win in the opener before jumping out to a big lead early in game two that led to an 11-4 win. The two Griz wins locked up the number three seed for Franklin with next week's conference tournament on the horizon.
Game One: Franklin 4 – Defiance 2
Both offenses struggled to generated anything until the bottom of the fourth inning when the Yellow Jackets got the ice-breaker with a two-out run-scoring single. The Griz stayed off the scoreboard until their half of the sixth, when the offense had their big breakthrough.
Three straight one-out singles from the top of the order tied the game and
Genesis Munoz made it 2-1 Grizzlies with the team's fourth straight single in the inning.
Molly Wallace followed with a sac fly to make it a 3-1 game but the Jackets got a run back in the bottom of the inning to halve the deficit.
Sydney Rodeghier restored the two-run lead in the seventh with an RBI double and the Jackets went down in order in the bottom of the inning as Franklin claimed the comeback win.
Rodeghier had two hits and was one of four different players to score in the game.
Sydney Pitts (10-8) turned in another quality start in the circle, scattering eight hits with a walk and two strikeouts in a complete game effort.
Game Two: Franklin 11 – Defiance 4
Franklin's offense wasted no time getting going in game two, scoring four times in the first on RBI doubles from Munoz & Wallace and RBI singles from
Eriana Wagner &
Ravyn McClaren.The Griz added two in the third with RBIs from McClaren and
Kaylee Stewart and three more in the fifth with RBI doubles from McClaren, Stewart and
Savannah Shadday.
Kennedy Bond capped the scoring for the Griz with a two-run double in the seventh.
McClaren paced the offense with a three-hit game while Wallace, Stewart, Wagner and Munoz all added two hits.
Stephanni Kleber (15-4) claimed the win in the circle, scattering seven hits with a walk and two strikeouts over seven innings.
Up Next
The Grizzlies will head to Lexington, Ky. and the campus of Transylvania University on May 11-14 for the 2023 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) Tournament. The third-seeded Grizzlies will meet the six-seed on Thursday afternoon at 12:30 p.m.
