Yellow Jackets Baseball falls to Franklin in shootout

FRANKLIN, Ind. - The Defiance College Yellow Jackets Baseball team dropped its series opener with Franklin on Friday in a shootout, losing 17-12 in the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference game.

Defiance opened up with a 2-0 lead over the Grizzlies by scoring a run in each of the first two innings. The Yellow Jackets took a lead with Gary Levengood's sacrifice fly that scored Aaron Helland.

In the second inning, another sacrifice fly, this time by Chris Donese, scored Matt Staels to put Defiance up by two.

Despite going up early, the Yellow Jackets fell behind after Franklin scored 10 runs to pull away from DC. The big inning for Franklin came in the second and featured a bases clearing double before a three-run home run to put the Yellow Jackets in a 10-2 hole.

The Yellow Jackets tried to climb out of the deficit and scored three runs in the sixth to start a comeback effort. Staels doubled to score Pat Masopust for the first run of the sixth inning.

In the next at bat, Donese singled home Joel Musser and Helland followed it up with a RBI single to score Staels, giving the Yellow Jackets three runs on three-straight hits to cut the deficit to 10-5.

However, Franklin answered back with four runs in the bottom half of the inning to go up 14-5. Defiance answered with a run, but Franklin scored three more runs over the next two innings.

The Yellow Jackets made a last effort in the ninth inning and scored six runs to close the deficit. Brandon Riley went on to score the first run on a ball in play by Staels. In the next at bat, Royce Laurendeau singled to score Cody Wiggins.

With two runners on, Tre DeVoe drew a walk to load the bases. Joe Fabrizio then hit a pinch-hit grand slam, cutting the deficit to 17-12. Despite closing the gap, Defiance was unable to score anymore runs in the inning.

Staels finished the game with four hits to lead the Yellow Jackets. He had three runs scored and three RBIs. Donese and Helland each finished with two hits in the game.

Defiance will look to rebound against the Grizzlies on Saturday with a doubleheader. First pitched is scheduled for a noon start.