Trojans edge Franklin in epic pitchers’ duel

<p>With two major Division I pitching recruits trading zeroes throughout Thursday’s sectional softball final between Franklin and Center Grove, there was some doubt about whether either team was ever going to be able to break through and score the winning run.</p><p>After 11 innings of incredible back and forth between Franklin sophomore hurler Izzy Harrison and Center Grove senior Abby Herbst, it was a walk-off RBI double from junior catcher Lexi Fair that propelled the host Trojans to a 1-0 triumph.</p><p>&quot;It’s a classic pitchers’ duel,&quot; Herbst said, &quot;and those are never easy, especially when neither team is hitting and you know that if you make one mistake, it’s a game-ender. So those are stressful, but I knew my defense had my back and I knew my offense was going to pick me up at some point.&quot;</p><p>Harrison and Herbst struck out 17 batters apiece, but it was a two-out walk — the only one issued by either pitcher — drawn by the latter that led to the decisive run. Fair, who had gone 0 for 4 with two whiffs on the night, then drove a ball deep to straightaway center that allowed pinch runner Sydney McConnell to finally end the stalemate.</p>[sc:text-divider text-divider-title="Story continues below gallery" ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery<p>&quot;I’m not typically a person that strikes out that often, and I’ve had four in the last three games, so I was definitely quite a bit frustrated with myself,&quot; Fair said. &quot;I knew how to make the adjustments; I just wasn’t doing them. So in that last at-bat, I was thinking I have to do something. Even if it’s a pop up, ground out, I have to hit the ball hard somewhere. </p><p>&quot;I just happened to hit it in the right spot.&quot;</p><p>Center Grove (24-3), which has won three straight sectional crowns, moves on to face the winner of the Bloomington South Sectional. That title game is slated for this evening.</p><p>Both teams had their opportunities Thursday, especially early, but they were wiped out time and time again by the pitchers’ dominance. Errors gave Franklin two runners on with one out in the first, but Herbst struck out the next two batters to get out of the inning. In the third, Center Grove had runners on second and third with nobody out and the top of the order up, but Harrison induced a pair of weak pop-ups and then fanned Herbst to escape unscathed.</p><p>Chances were sparse after that. The Grizzly Cubs got a pair of base hits in the fourth inning and again in the fifth, but couldn’t advance a runner past second in either case. Harrison, meanwhile, worked around leadoff hits in the sixth and seventh to send it into the final frame still 0-0.</p><p>Herbst, hitless in her first three at-bats against Harrison, smacked a double to left center to open up the ninth. A groundout moved the runner to third with one out, but Harrison got out of it with her 14th strikeout and a pop-up to short.</p><p>Both hurlers seemed to get stronger as the evening went, but in the end the Trojans got the one big hit they needed. Despite the heartbreaking setback, the Grizzly Cubs (15-9) walked away from the epic showdown with their heads up.</p><p>&quot;We knew that somebody was going to break open a hit, and I was just hoping that it would be us, of course,&quot; Franklin coach Kilah Dickey said. &quot;I’m definitely excited about our young team that we have and the potential that we have in the future.&quot;</p><p>&quot;It kind of sucks that it ended like that,&quot; Harrison said, &quot;but I know next year that we’re definitely going to get them.&quot;</p><p>For now, the Trojans’ reign continues. Barely.</p><p>&quot;They’re amazing,&quot; Center Grove coach Alyssa Coleman said of Herbst and Harrison. &quot;We knew it was going to be a pitchers’ duel, and we knew we had to leave it out here on the field — and our team did that. … They just decided not to quit.&quot;</p>