Franklin softball coach Shelby Biehl says she’s never seen a pitcher and catcher call more timeouts than her current battery of Izzy Harrison and Corin Dammeier.
What is it, exactly, that the two spend so much time discussing during games?
“It’s usually a tension break, or we’ll just say random things to each other just for fun,” Harrison admits.
The conversations seem to do the trick. The duo has helped Franklin establish itself as a serious contender heading toward the postseason, with Harrison among the leading Miss Softball candidates and Dammeier batting a team-best .560 while also providing a steadying influence behind the plate.
Though Dammeier is in her first season of high school softball, the sophomore backstop came into the year having already established a rapport with Harrison; the two do all of their offseason workouts together at Powerhouse Athletics in Franklin, and they’ve found during that time that they’re very much on the same wavelength.
“I feel comfortable enough with her and she feels comfortable enough with me to say, ‘Hey, clean it up — you’re not doing great back there today,'” Dammeier said. “It’s good to have that connection and that friendship.”
“We definitely check each other a lot,” Harrison agreed, “but it’s in a good way. We know how each other’s feeling, and we can just be able to be there and support each other.”
That connection has helped Harrison — one of the state’s most overpowering hurlers with a 0.47 earned-run average and 149 strikeouts in 74 2/3 innings — to feel “more relaxed than I have any other year” in the pitching circle.
Part of that comfort for Harrison stems from having more confidence in her teammates than she has in any other season. With Dammeier behind the plate and juniors Morgan Carter, Maddie Hedges and Erin Lee manning center field and the middle infield positions, the Grizzly Cubs are especially solid up the middle.
Anchoring that group is Dammeier, who says she’s loved playing the catcher position since she was about 11 years old.
“I like the idea of always being able to see the whole field and being in every play,” she said. “Even if the pitch is coming at me at 70 miles an hour, it’s fun for me.”
It’s not quite so fun for opposing batters. The hard-throwing Harrison, who verbally committed to the University of Kentucky before ever throwing a high school pitch, has yielded just 19 hits and five earned runs so far this season.
She and her Franklin teammates will need to be at their best from here on out. Starting with Monday’s trip to Class 4A No. 7 Shelbyville, the Grizzly Cubs could play as many as six games next week should they reach the final of the Johnson County tournament — and a difficult sectional looms, with fourth-ranked Mooresville awaiting in the first round.
Whatever trouble may come along the way, expect Harrison and Dammeier to come together and talk their way through it. Probably quite often.
“I don’t know if they’re productive meetings or if they’re just talking to each other,” Biehl said with a grin, “but they work well together.
“They’re very good friends, and I think that shows.”
