One of the identifying marks of a good team is being able to find ways to win when you don't have your A game. On Wednesday, Franklin softball did it twice.
The Grizzlies came through when needed against HCAC rival Hanover, walking off a 4-3 victory in the opener before rallying from four runs back to steal game two by a 9-8 score.
With the victories, Franklin remains atop the league standings with a 10-0 record. The team improves to 26-6 overall.
"It's huge," Griz coach Britt Harvey said. "Understanding that there was a lot of adversity in the games, a lot of situations they were dealing with, and they never batted an eye. They just come back at it."
Offense was hard to come by early in the first game, with a Hanover solo homer the lone hit for either side over the first three innings. Franklin finally got things going in the bottom of the fourth, scoring a pair of runs.
Zoey Kugelman led off with a triple down the right-field line and scored on a groundout by
Jasmine Day.
Kendall Lowry then hit a two-out double, scoring when a
Ruth Kaiser fly ball down the line in left was dropped for a two-base error.
Day made it a 3-1 game in the sixth when she reached on another two-base miscue by the Panthers, moved to third on an infield single by
Jaylee Fansler and scored on a delayed double steal.
Hanover scored twice in the top of the seventh to tie it before the Grizzlies came back to walk it off in the bottom of the frame.
Hadley Fuhrman was hit by a pitch to lead off, took second on a passed ball and jogged in with the winning run when Kugelman gapped a ball to the wall in left center field.
Lauren Duncan got the pitching win, her 11th of the season, after limiting the Panthers to four hits and two earned runs while striking out four. Kugelman had two of the four Franklin hits.
The Panthers struck for two runs in the first inning of the nightcap before the Griz answered with three in their half of the frame. Kugelman got things started with a double, and walks to Day and Fansler loaded the bases. Lowry followed with an RBI single that was mishandled, allowing two more runs to score and give the home team the lead.
The advantage held until Hanover tied the game up in the fourth inning and then scored four in the top of the fifth to go ahead, 7-3.
In the bottom of the inning, the Grizzlies loaded the bases with nobody out courtesy of a Fansler single, a Lowry walk and an error that allowed Kaiser to reach.
Kali Laycock then brought Fansler in with an infield single, and Fuhrman followed with a base hit to right that plated two more, cutting the deficit to one.
After Hanover doubled their lead with a run in the top of the sixth, the Grizzlies finished off their late surge with three runs in the bottom half. Lowry doubled into the gap in left center to score Day and Fansler, then came home herself on a single to right by Kaiser. Kugelman, pitching her third inning of relief, shut the Panthers down in the seventh to claim the win.
Lowry, Fuhrman and Day each had two of the Grizzlies' 12 hits in the second game.
Franklin will try to maintain its perfect league mark with four games over the weekend — two at Manchester on Saturday and a pair of home games against Earlham on Sunday.
