For Franklin baseball, this weekend's home series with Bluffton will determine whether the season will continue into the conference tournament or not.

Wednesday offered a final tuneup in the form of a road trip to Wabash for the last nonconference game of the season.

The Grizzlies tried valiantly to climb from an early hole, cutting an eight-run deficit to two, before ultimately suffering a 10-7 setback.

Franklin (20-17) got on the board in the top of the first inning when Josh Girvan scored on a Davis Wagner sacrifice fly. The Little Giants, though, answered with two runs in the bottom of the frame and erupted for seven in the second to seize a 9-1 advantage.

From there, the Griz chipped away. In the third inning, Girvan plated Jaxon Henke with a sac fly and Dyllan Redmon singled to bring Garrett DeHart in. DeHart scored again in the fifth on an error after a steal by Girvan, who later scored on a Redmon groundout.

The visitors got within 9-7 in the sixth inning on RBI groundouts by Colin Goley and Gavin Fields, but they were unable to generate any further opportunities and Wabash tacked on an insurance run in the eighth.

Girvan and Redmon each had two of the Grizzlies' eight hits.

Franklin begins its final HCAC series of the season on Friday when it hosts Bluftton for the first two games of a three-game set. First pitch is set for 1 p.m.