FRANKLIN – The Franklin baseball team honored its nine-member senior class on Sunday (Apr. 28) afternoon with the Senior Day ceremony ahead of two games against the DePauw Tigers.
 
After dropping the opener by a 14-7 score, the Grizzlies (18-17) rallied to take game two from the Tigers (20-13), scoring five times in the sixth to erase a four-run deficit. Both games were seven-inning affairs.
 
Prior to first pitch of game one, Frankiln's fans, players and coaching staff said "thank you" to seniors Colby Reed, AJ Sanders, Jackson Young, Tysen Lipscomb, Dylan Sprong, Sam Peck, Anthony Smith, Adam Taylor and Sean Sullivan for their contribution to the program over the last four years.
 
Game One: DePauw 14 – Franklin 7
Garrett DeHart kicked off the scoring with an RBI double in the first. Franklin answered a three-run DePauw second with five runs of their half of the inning. AJ Sanders knocked in two with a single and Sean Sullivan capped the scoring with a three-run home run to make it a 6-3 game.
 
But the two offenses went in opposite directions the rest of the way, with the Tigers scoring 11 times over the 4-6 innings with Franklin managing just a fifth inning RBI single from Dyllan Redmon.
 
Maddox Manes got the game one start, tossing 1.2 innings of one-hit ball. Will Butts, Mason Campbell (1-1), Sam Peck and Noah Bennington all saw time on the mound, with Bennington making his season debut in a scoreless inning of work.
 
Game Two: Franklin 10 – DePauw 9
Redmon opened game two with a two-run single in the first, but it was followed by five straight Tiger runs over the next two innings. Lipscomb cut DePauw's lead to 5-3 with a solo home run in the third but DePauw plated a run in the fourth and three in the fifth to take a 9-3 lead when the Grizzlies came to bat in the fifth.
 
With the game slipping away, the Grizzlies got back within striking distance in the fifth with Reed and Taylor both drawing bases loaded walks. In the bottom of the sixth, Sullivan got another run back with an RBI double and two batters later, Garrett DeHart stepped to the dish with two on and the sophomore crushed a game-tying three-run home run.
 
Franklin completed the comeback five batters later, when Taylor came in to score on a wild pitch for the winning run.
 
Making the first appearance of his career, freshman Troy Smith (1-0) shut down the Tigers over 2.1 innings, giving up two hits and striking out three batters.
 
Up Next
Franklin is back at home on Tuesday (Apr. 30) afternoon, hosting Webster University in a non-conference game. First pitch is set for 4:00 p.m.