KOKOMO, Ind. – The Franklin College baseball team opened conference tournament play on Thursday (May 9) morning, taking on third-seeded Rose-Hulman in the first game of the 2024 Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference (HCAC) Tournament.
 
The defending conference tournament champion Grizzlies (20-21) were flustered by Engineers' (24-17) starter Michael Yager, who held Franklin to just five hits in a 5-0 Engineer win.
 
Rose plated two runs in the second and three in the fifth to complete the game's scoring. Franklin left nine runners on base with their best scoring chance coming in the sixth after Garrett DeHart and Tysen Lipscomb reached to start the inning. But both would be left on the base paths as the next three batters went down in order.
 
AJ Sanders went 2-for-4 at the top of the order with Andrew Wallace, Adam Taylor and Colby Reed also reaching via base hit.
 
Freshman Luke Harmon (5-4) got the start in his first conference tournament game, walking one and striking out four over five innings of work. Fellow rookies Troy Smith and Brayden Marrow combined to work three scoreless innings in relief.
 
Up Next
Franklin will play in the tournament's first elimination game, which is set for Friday (May 10) morning at 10:00 a.m. The Grizzlies will meet the loser of Thursday's 4/5 matchup between Mount St. Joseph and Anderson.