Greenwood put together six fantastic innings against Franklin-Simpson in Monday’s Region 4 Baseball Tournament quarterfinals at Nick Denes Field.

The last one – the seventh – wasn’t nearly so pretty for the Gators, but the good of the previous six outweighed the rough finish as Greenwood held on for a 4-2 win to advance to Tuesday’s semifinals against Warren East.

Survive and advance, that’s the name of the game.

“That’s postseason baseball – we know we’re going to get everybody’s best,” Greenwood coach Jason Jaggers said.

Greenwood (28-6) built a four-run lead to back a rock-solid start by senior Zach Davis.

The right-hander came out for the top of the seventh looking to finish off a complete game, but Franklin-Simpson (22-14) finally started to do some damage at the plate after being limited to just three hits through the first six innings.

Braylon Turner got the rally started with a one-out double, then Liam Heinze followed by roping an RBI triple to score the Wildcats’ first run. Davis got one more batter, but an error on a ground ball by Brady Delk allowed another run to score.

That prompted Jaggers to call on ace Nathan Howard for a rare appearance out of the bullpen. Franklin’s Layne Alford kept the rally going with a single to center field and both runners moved into scoring position after a groundout. Howard let it go no further, getting a called strike three for the final out.

“I thought Zach was phenomenal on the mound for us,” Jaggers said. “I thought we played great defense. I thought we swung the bats really well, to be honest with you. Some of those were right at them and they made some good plays, too.”

Greenwood opened the scoring in the bottom of the first. Henry Justice poked an RBI single to center and Easton Talley brought in another run when his grounder was misplayed for an error.

The Gators put together another two-run rally in the fourth. Jake Flickinger led off with a double and Davis drew a two-out walk before Andrew Jolly hit a high fly ball to right that found a spot on the turf for a two-run double.

“We were hitting a lot of hard balls,” Jolly said. Everybody, 1 through 9, I swear we were hitting a lot of hard balls. Just some of them were right at people and didn’t fall. Some of them did and that’s where our four runs came from.”

Jolly finished with a 2-for-3 night and two RBIs and added a pair of solid defensive plays at first base on fly balls.

“He works hard – he’s swung the bat pretty consistently for us all year long,” Jaggers said. “That sounds like him, to just come through in a situation like that.”

Chaze Huff chipped in with a double as the Gators totaled seven hits.

Davis earned the win after pitching 6 1/3 innings, allowing one earned run off five hits while striking out five batters. Davis said he leaned on his curveball and worked in a solid change-up.

“I just wanted to throw strikes and let my team work,” said Davis, a Louisville signee who will play middle infield in college. “I’m never going to beat a team by myself. That’s why there’s nine guys on the field, not just one.”

Heinze was 3-for-3 with an RBI and Turner went 2-for-3 to lead Franklin-Simpson.

FSHS 000 000 2 – 2 6 2

GHS 200 200 x – 4 7 1

WP: Davis. LP: Blanckenberg. SV: Howard.