Whiteland got the timely hits when it needed them the most.
Five fourth-inning hits led to four runs that enabled the Warriors to come away with a 6-3 victory over Franklin in the semifinal round of the Class 4A Columbus East Sectional on Tuesday evening.
“We did a good job of finding a rhythm,” Whiteland coach Harley Roller said. “We have a pretty young roster. We had our freshman (Jordyn Crouch) out there on the mound again who’s carried us a lot this season. It was great to see her come out and hold her own. We backed her up on defense and produced the runs to keep the pressure off.”
Whiteland (12-12) moves on to face East Central for the sectional championship at 6:30 p.m. Thursday.
Both teams wasted no time putting up runs in the opening inning. Whiteland leadoff batter Kiley Sullivan produced the first hit of the game, stole second and eventually scored off a hit from Josslynn Harbert. Two batters later, Gracee Whitaker singled to drive in Harbert for a 2-0 lead.
In the bottom half of the first, Franklin responded right back when Adeline Blackwell led off with a single and stole second, and then Aubrey Leugers singled to plate the first run. Annabelle Richter smacked a double to plate Leugers and tie it at 2-2.
Both teams settled down for the next two innings, and the next scoring didn’t come until the fourth inning, when the Warriors’ string of hits, capped off by a double by Harbert, grew the lead to 6-2.
The Grizzly Cubs (13-14) cut into the deficit when a throwing error allowed a run to score.
Whiteland outhit Franklin 12-10 in the contest. Crouch went the distance for the Warriors to earn the win in the circle. Bryleigh Carisle-Halton went five innings in the loss, with Amaya Coit pitching the final two innings in relief.
This was the third meeting between the two teams after a regular-season series split.
“The girls were starting to come together and play really well,” Franklin coach Ken Sears said. “We are going to miss our three seniors, Lexi Willey, Mia Harbert and Sara Small, but we have a lot of young talent that hopefully are going to get better. This one is tough. We put a lot more pressure on them this time, but we just couldn’t get the runs in when we needed them.”