The bridge between disappointment and possible payback is a short one when it comes to baseball teams in the Mid-State Conference.
Visiting Franklin proved this on Wednesday with a 10-3 victory at Whiteland.
A day after losing a one-run decision to the Warriors on their home field, the Grizzly Cubs pounded out nine hits to improve to 4-2 in the league standings and 7-3 overall.
Senior pitcher Luke Miles went the distance for Franklin, allowing seven hits and striking out two.
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“It was a good bounce-back game,” Franklin coach Ryan Feyerabend said. “Luke is a phenomenal pitcher and he had his stuff going. He’s a guy who likes to get in rhythm. He has the ball in hand and is ready to go.
“He works really fast and has a good breaking ball. Once he lifts his leg and goes, everything goes very fast.”
Trailing 1-0 after two innings, the Grizzly Cubs erupted for six runs in the top of the third, sending 10 batters to the plate to take command. Franklin produced three singles in the inning to go along with doubles from junior center fielder Luke Torrance and No. 7 hitter Sam Albright.
Third baseman Jared Ross got things started with a leadoff single to left, followed by C.J. Brown reaching on a Warriors’ throwing error. Freshman leadoff hitter Jace Fowler was hit by a pitch for the second time, loading the bases.
Grizzly Cubs senior Tyce Miller’s groundout brought home a runner to tie the game. Torrance followed with his opposite-field double to right that scored two runs, while Miles helped his cause with an RBI single. Albright’s double to left center scored two Franklin runners for a 6-1 advantage.
The Cubs tacked on three in the top of the fourth, started by Fowler’s one-out single. Miller then singled, and the Warriors opted to intentionally walk Miles to load the bases. Sophomore shortstop Brodie Rinehold quickly cleared them with a double to center.
Franklin added its final run in the fifth inning.
Miller, the starting left fielder, had two singles for the Grizzly Cubs. In all, eight different players contributed at least one hit.
“Everyone just brought a good mentality. We forgot yesterday and what happened, and just showed up and attacked today,” Miller said. “The (third inning) gave us a lot of momentum. We really needed that. We had a lot of guys stepping up.
“We’ve suffered some tough losses, but we do a really good job of coming back the next night and forgetting about it.”
Whiteland (7-4, 3-3) received two doubles from senior Tyler Wick, the team’s starting pitcher. Teammates Iyan Pelfree and Trevor Spilker also had doubles in a losing effort.
