WILMINGTON, Ohio – The Franklin baseball team stepped out of conference play on Wednesday (Apr. 23) afternoon for two seven-inning contests with the Wilmington Quakers.
A massive seventh inning comeback in the opener gave the Grizzlies (17-16) a thrilling 9-8 win. Wilmington (10-21) had their revenge in game two, holding Franklin to three hits in a 10-0 Quaker win.
Game One: Franklin 9 – Wilmington 8
Franklin grabbed a first inning lead with a sac fly from
Dyllan Redmon and the Grizzlies doubled their lead in the fourth with an RBI double from
Ian Nuckles. But the Quaker bats woke up with one run in the fourth, four in the fifth and two in the sixth to give the hosts a 7-2 lead with Franklin down to their final three outs.
Pinch hitter
Riddick Bolton stepped in with one out and a runner on and clubbed a two-run home run to get Franklin back within striking distance at 7-4. Each of Franklin's next three batters reached and
Garrett DeHart brought in another run with a bases loaded walk to make it 7-5.
Andrew Wallace tied the game at seven with a two-run single and Franklin got two more runs in the frame with a sac fly from
Alex Billman and an RBI single from Bolton to cap a seven-run inning.
Wilmington got one run back in the bottom of the inning, but
Luke Harmon slammed the door shut on a comeback, earning his second save of the year.
Brayden Marrow got the start and gave up one run on three hits over four innings of work.
Mason Campbell (1-2) earned the win with two innings of relief. Bolton,
Nic Deering and
Josh Girvan had two hits each and Colin Beaty recorded the first hit of his career in the opener.
Game Two: Wilmington 10 – Franklin 0
Game two saw the Quakers plate six runs in the third and four more in the fourth while the Grizzlies struggled to string hits together. DeHart,
Luke Willmann and
Colin Goley all recorded hits for the Grizzlies in the game.
Damian Tillie (0-3) got the start in game two, logging 2.1 innings.
Will Butts,
Reed Shaffer,
Jordan DeAtley,
Michael Carter and DeHart all logged time on the mound in relief.
Up Next
Franklin returns to conference play on Friday (Apr. 25), opening a three-game weekend series with the Earlham Quakers. Game one is set to get underway at 6:00 p.m.