COLUMBUS
Franklin pushed across an unearned run in the top of the eighth inning to pull out a 5-4 win at Columbus North in Saturday’s season opener. The Grizzly Cubs then fell to the Bull Dogs 9-1 in the second game of a doubleheader.
Franklin led 4-1 after five innings in the opener, but North scored two in the sixth and one in the seventh to send it to extra innings. Luke Miles doubled with one out in the eighth, went to third on a wild pitch and scored when Jonah Rockey reached on an error.
“It was nice that we had the lead and lost it and were able to come back and finish that,” Franklin coach Ryan Feyerabend said. “Getting the first win is never easy, and it’s nice to get it in the first game. That was a good start for us.”
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Click here to purchase photos from this galleryMiles went 2 for 3 and had an RBI single in the Grizzly Cubs’ three-run fifth, and Rockey followed Miles’ RBI hit with a two-run single. Miles picked up the win in relief of Tyce Miller, and Kyle Davis retired the Bull Dogs in the eighth to earn the save.
In the second game, North’s Casper Clark threw a two-hitter. He took a shutout into the seventh before Rockey lined a one-out double, stole third and scored on a groundout.
Rockey had both hits for Franklin, going 2 for 3. Jared Ross, the first of four Grizzly Cub pitchers, took the loss.