All of the preseason hype pointing to a likely matchup between Franklin and Center Grove for the Johnson County baseball tournament championship turned out to be right on the money — but not without a bit of drama.
Franklin jumped out to a huge lead and held off a furious Whiteland rally for an 11-8 semifinal victory over the Warriors at Center Grove on Friday night.
The Grizzly Cubs (5-2) advance to the championship game against the host Trojans, who rolled past Greenwood Christian by a 13-2 margin in the first game of the day. The two teams will attempt to play at 1 p.m. today, weather permitting.
"That team always battles," Franklin coach Ryan Feyerabend said. "It’s always Franklin-Whiteland; it’s always the same way. We’re going to battle tooth and nail, and it doesn’t matter if we had a big lead or they had a big lead. This is just the way they all wind up."
The Grizzly Cubs went into the bottom of the sixth inning with an 11-0 lead and starting pitcher Jackson Klem cruising, having allowed just one hit to that point. But when the Warriors finally broke through, they did so with the force of the Kool-Aid Man going through a thin piece of drywall.
One-out RBI base hits from Elijah Hawkins and Drew Helton broke up the shutout, extended the game and got Klem off of the mound. Brant Kunz followed with another run-scoring single against reliever Jackson Henry, and a bases-loaded double by Korey Gordon plated two more runs to make it 11-5.
Kevin Denham and Gordon then scored on wild pitches, and a sacrifice fly by Brayden Roy brought Emberton home to make it a three-run game heading into the seventh.
"I think we just relaxed and kind of just started to play a little bit," Whiteland coach Scott Sherry said. "I just hope it shows them that we can play. They can play with these guys, but we just can’t have those lulls of five, six innings of no hits and flat energy. We’ve got to bring that energy all the time."
Franklin got some energy — perhaps a bit too much — in the seventh inning from an emotionally charged Jace Fowler, who came on and struck out three straight batters to end the game.
Fowler also drove in three runs on a single, double, triple and sacrifice fly at the plate to help his team build what turned out to be a necessarily large lead.
The Grizzly Cubs loaded the bases with nobody out in the top of the first but only got one run out of it, with Brodie Rinehold bringing Fowler home on a fielder’s choice. The second inning, though, proved to be far more fruitful.
Nolan Netter led off with a double and moved to third on a single by Xavier Brown, with both runners scoring on a double by Fowler, who later scored on a wild pitch. Max Clark then walked, stole second and came around on Logan Devenport double. Devenport then scored the fifth run of the inning on an RBI groundout by Jackson Henry.
Franklin upped the lead to 9-0 with a three-run third. A base hit by Ethan VanLannen brought in both Netter and Brown, and VanLannen then came home on a sacrifice fly by Fowler. Caden Wilburn came on in relief for the Warriors and settled things down a bit, getting through the order once without allowing further damage until the sixth, when Rinehold broke through with a two-run homer to left-center field to make it 11-0.
Klem, meanwhile, was in his comfort zone for most of the evening. He worked around a pair of Grizzly Cub errors in the bottom of the first and had allowed just one hit, a leadoff single by Peyton Emberton in the third, before Whiteland’s big rally in the sixth.
Center Grove (6-1) had a much easier time in Friday’s opener, with winning pitcher Jacob Wilson striking out 10 over 4 2/3 innings of work. Mitchell Evans and Owen Guilfoy each doubled twice and drove in two runs, while Drew Culbertson tripled and scored three times.
Jake Potter had a pair of hits for the Cougars.
If the final does happen today, both the Trojans and Grizzly Cubs will find their pitching depth tested. Both teams would be playing for the fifth time in as many days.
"(Center Grove is) a little deeper on the mound, but we still have some guys available tomorrow," Feyerabend said. "But if we come out and swing the bats like we’re capable of, I think we’ll have a really good day."
