Baseball season closes out with a pair of losses to conference champs

FRANKLIN, Ind. – Defiance College baseball collided with the class of the conference to complete the 2023 season and lost both games of Sunday's doubleheader, 13-3 and 8-2, to Franklin College at Grizzly Park.

The Grizzlies finish as the Heartland Collegiate Athletic Conference's regular-season champions for the second year in a row with an 18-4 mark in the HCAC and 30-10 overall. Meanwhile, Defiance's 4-34 record adds up to the lowest winning percentage (.105) and fewest victories since 1975 (3-15, .167) while 34 losses are the most in a season in program history.

Game 1 Final: Franklin 13, Defiance 3
Box Score: Click here

Franklin battered Defiance pitching the first opening game of Sunday's twinbill by recording 12 total hits, including six extra-base hits, for 13 total runs in a run-rule, 13-3 ballgame.

Most of the damage by the Grizzlies was done in a pair of six-run innings, one in the first and another in the sixth. Catcher Luke Willman smacked a pair of home runs to cap off each crooked inning, a two-run shot in the first and a three-run homer in the sixth to total five RBIs for the contest. Tysen Lipscomb recorded three RBIs for the Grizzlies on an RBI triple in the fourth then a two-run shot to kick off the sixth-inning rally.

Defiance starter Sam Thombs (Loss, 1-9) did all he could to carry the load after a half-dozen in the first and only faced 19 hitters between the second through fifth innings, but was ultimately charged with 10 runs with five walks and hit a pair. Jeff Varga (Rockford, Mich./Rockford) relieved Thombs (Commerce Township, Mich./Lutheran) in the sixth and was responsible for Franklin's last three runs.

On the offensive side, Defiance's underclassmen produced in the fourth with RBIs from Tim Bobek's (Holland, Ohio/Springfield) single and Ethan Jenkins (Bellbrook, Ohio/Bellbrook) with a sacrifice fly. Hunter Bostater (Ney, Ohio/Fairview) notched a pair of base hits in the first contest as well.

Game 2 Final: Franklin 8, Defiance 2
Box Score: Click here

After a solid six-inning start by Johnny Hammerstein (Loss, 0-5) in which he held the Grizzlies to four runs, Franklin created four more runs against the DC bullpen. Hammerstein (Canton, Mich./Father Gabriel Richard) became the third different Defiance pitcher to get tagged by a home-run swing from Willmann on a two-run blast in the fourth.

Franklin posted four runs in the seventh against three different pitchers. Jenkins was plagued by two walks and hit a pair of batters to bring home the first run beore a sacrifice fly ushered another across home plate. After a bases-loaded walk created a third run, Defiance turned to Tyler Sickmiller (Leipsic, Ohio/Leipsic). DeHart greeted him with an RBI single before another bases-loaded walk made the score 8-1 Franklin. Damarius Taylor (Mansfield, Ohio/Ontario) escaped the bases-loaded jam to halt further damage.

Dylan King (Las Vegas, Nev./Ed W. Clark) created a last memory in his final plate appearance as a Yellow Jacket when the senior catcher led off the ninth inning with a solo home run to left field. The home run was King's second of his collegiate career. 

Joining King with two hits in the box score for Defiance was Gunner Gregg (Grayton, Ohio/Oak Harbor) and Tyler Dehan (St. Henry, Ohio/St. Henry), who drove in Gregg in the fourth inning on an RBI single. Senior Alex Morr (Bryan, Ohio/Bryan) recorded a hit and a walk in each game of Sunday's twinbill and also added an RBI knock in the first contest.

With the Jackets' season complete, the HCAC shifts to tournament action beginning on Thursday in Kokomo, Ind. Complete coverage of the HCAC Baseball Tournament can be found on the HCAC's website.

-JACKETS-