Granite Bay suffers 14-6 loss to Franklin

Granite Bay's baseball team is young this year, having eight seniors, but the team also has nine juniors and seven sophomores who are pushing and getting playing time. The Grizzlies have won two of the first five games, including suffering a 14-6 loss on Wednesday to a very good Franklin team that has won four straight games after opening the season with a tie. Granite Bay coach Pat Esposito expects his team to take some lumps, but the longer the season goes the better his team will get. "We're young and I don't like the mistakes we're making, but they're all young mistakes," Esposito said. "As they get better at the game and their baseball IQ goes up, they won't make them. "We're going to take some lumps, but we're going to roll with those lumps and what we're going to get out of it is experience and we're going to get better every game." Against Franklin, the Grizzlies fell behind early and found themselves playing catch-up all game long. The good news is they answered back and scored when the Wildcats scored, but the Grizzlies just didn't score enough runs. Franklin scored three runs in the first inning, starting off with a leadoff home run from Dylan Minnatee. Granite Bay answered with two runs in the bottom of the first when junior Andrew Jones walked, stole second and scored on a basehit from sophomore Derek Asnicar. Two batters later, sophomore Isaac Schroeder singled in Asnicar. Franklin scored two more runs in the top of the fifth inning, but the Grizzlies answered with two runs of their own. Sophomore JC Petersen walked, Jones followed with a bunt single and Asnicar singled to load the bases. Sophomore Noah Paul then ripped a two-run single to make the score 5-4. The Grizzlies then made three outs in a row and still trailed by one. Franklin then broke the game open with five runs in the top of the sixth inning and added four more in the top of the seventh. Schroeder hit a two-run home run in the bottom of the seventh. "I like the talent and athletic ability," Esposito said. "I think we've got some good young players who are on the field getting experience now and that will be good for us down the road. As we go game-to-game, we get more experience and more knowledge. I think we'll have some pretty talented players. "Our pitchers are trying to throw strikes. We're not going to overpower anyone, but we are trying to command the strike zone. Hopefully, we don't walk many guys and make the opponent earn their way on base." The Grizzlies have a lot of young talent, and it's going to take time for them to get experience. "We have to be more cerebral with them," Esposito said. "The talent is there. They've got to be thinking about what play they can make from what positions on the field and situations from the plate. "We're moving in the right direction."