Pitching helped give Franklin baseball early leads in both of its games on Saturday afternoon. The bats finished the job.

The Grizzlies continued their torrid offensive start to the season, peppering Albion by scores of 14-5 and 11-6 at McDowell Field. The team has now scored 121 runs over its first 12 games.

It was the arms, though, particularly the two starters, that allowed Franklin (8-4) the luxury of playing with a lead most of the day.

"Two really good starts from Luke Harmon and Caden Wilburn gave us a great start out of the gate, and the offense continued to chip away," Griz coach Lance Marshall said. "The second game, we just continued to keep executing."

In the opener, Franklin got down 3-2 before going on top with three runs in the fourth inning. Alex Billman scored on an error and Nic Deering and Josh Girvan tacked on RBI singles to make it 5-3. Noah Loveall added a solo home run in the fifth.

After the Brits got within a run at 6-5, the Grizzlies got three runs in the seventh on RBIs by Loveall, Dyllan Redmon and Nolan McLane, then put it away with a five-run eighth. Drew Helton singled in a run and Loveall added an RBI double before coming home on a double steal. Redmon and Deering each knocked in one more.

Loveall spotted Wilburn a 2-1 lead in game two with a two-run homer in the first inning. Albion eventually cut an 8-3 deficit to 8-6 before Gavin Fields gave the Griz some late breathing room with a three-run home run in the eighth.

Harmon pitched 5.1 innings in the opener, striking out seven, while Wilburn fanned six and allowed just three hits and one unearned runs over five innings in the nightcap. Loveall and Deering had three hits each in game one, with Colin Goley going 3 for 4 during the back half of the twinbill.

Franklin finishes the weekend series with a noon game on Sunday.