Franklin softball tops Greenwood in county opener

<p>Familiarity can breed contempt, but Izzy Harrison didn’t seem too upset after she and her Franklin softball teammates faced off against Greenwood for the third time in four days.</p><p>Winning has a way of brightening the mood.</p><p>After the two rival squads split a pair of Mid-State Conference games earlier in the week, the Grizzly Cubs took the rubber match on Friday, riding a dominating pitching performance from Harrison to a 7-0 home win in the first round of the Johnson County tournament.</p><p>Franklin (13-8) will face Whiteland in a semifinal game this morning at Center Grove. The Warriors have won two of the three meetings between the teams this season.</p><p>Harrison, who struck out 11 Woodmen while allowing one hit and walking three, didn’t feel like facing the same team twice in a week made much of a difference. Greenwood co-coach Greg Norwood, on the other hand …</p><p>&quot;Facing Izzy once is difficult enough,&quot; he said. &quot;Izzy is a phenomenal pitcher; that’s why she’s going to Kentucky.&quot;</p><p>Franklin took a 2-0 lead in the first. Harrison led off with a single and later came around to score when Maddie Hedges reached on a two-base error. Hedges then came in on a partially successful double steal, crossing home while Erin Lee was caught in a rundown between first and second.</p><p>The top of the Grizzly Cub lineup came through again in the third. Harrison got things started with another base hit, stole second and scored on a one-out RBI single by Hedges. Franklin pushed the lead to 5-0 when Hedges and Corin Dammeier scampered home on back-to-back passed balls.</p><p>In the fifth, the home team tacked on two more runs. Courtesy runner Lily Miles crossed the plate on a passed ball, and Macy Hussung plated Lee with an RBI base hit.</p><p>Greenwood (6-15) had its best chance in the top of the third, when it loaded the bases on a walk, a hit batter and an error. But Harrison got Courtney Hankenhoff on a grounder to short to end the threat. The Woodmen got their first hit in the fourth when Taylor Dick led off with a single, but she wound up being erased on an inning-ending double play.</p><p>Harrison didn’t have much trouble from there, working around walks in the fifth and seventh and striking out five of the last six hitters she faced.</p><p>&quot;She carried us defensively; we didn’t have to do too much,&quot; Franklin coach Shelby Biehl said. &quot;They backed her up pretty well on a couple of plays, and then we just hit well tonight.&quot;</p><p>Dammeier and Harrison each had two of the Grizzly Cubs’ seven hits on the day.</p><p>Despite the loss, Norwood feels good about the direction his young Woodmen are headed in with the postseason looming.</p><p>&quot;We don’t put up a lot of runs, but we’re playing the game better; we’re making less and less errors each week,&quot; he said. &quot;We’ve got some talent, and it’s starting to blossom.&quot;</p><p>The Grizzly Cubs now move on to another very familiar foe in Whiteland, which split a pair of 3-1 battles on Franklin’s home field last month.</p><p>&quot;Since we have played them, we know what to expect,&quot; Harrison said, &quot;but we’re going to come out and try our hardest, and hopefully it works out the way we want it to.&quot;</p>