ST. LEON — Columbus North spotted Luke Harmon an early lead on Friday night, and the senior hurler didn’t let it go to waste.
Harmon struck out 14 Franklin hitters while going the distance as the Bull Dogs advanced to the championship game of the Class 4A East Central Sectional with a 6-3 triumph.
North (16-10) will play in Monday’s final against Whiteland, a 7-0 winner over the host Trojans earlier in the evening.
Franklin struck first in the bottom of the first, with Max Clark walking, stealing second and coming home on a two-out triple to center field by Beau Baker. The Bull Dogs, though, answered with vigor in the top of the second, taking full advantage of some Grizzly Cub miscues to score five runs on one hit.
Blake Osbourne singled with one out, advanced 90 feet on a botched pickoff attempt, took third on a wild pitch and scored on Joey Fry’s groundout to first. Kyler Hashman and Dillon James followed with two-out walks to load the bases, and the throw on Tyler Blythe’s infield grounder pulled the first baseman off the bag, allowing Trenton McCain to score the go-ahead run. Hashman scored on a wild pitch, and another Franklin error yielded two more runs.
North had a chance to pad its lead when it put two runners on with one out in the third, but Jackson Henry came on in relief of Franklin starter Braeden Burton and recorded two strikeouts to end the threat.
The Grizzly Cubs capitalized on a North mistake in the fourth inning to cut the deficit in half. The Bull Dogs appeared to be out of the inning when Landen Basey hit a routine ground ball to second with two out and one on, but the throw to first sailed high to give Franklin runners on second and third. After North starter Luke Harmon intentionally walked Clark to load the bases, Henry hit a ball down the third-base line that glanced off the bag and allowed Caleb Funkhouser and Basey to come home, making it 5-3.
Connor Hensley’s two-out single to left field in the top of the sixth scored Dillon James to give the Bull Dogs a little more breathing room. North went on to load the bases but Henry was able to escape without further damage. The senior allowed just three hits in 4 1/3 innings of work.
Regardless, the three-run cushion was enough for Harmon, who worked around a two-out infield hit from Baker to close out the seventh.
