By RICH TORRES
FISHERS – Before the season started, Fishers head coach Matthew Cherry was asked to pinpoint his baseball team’s strength heading into the spring.
Pitching was going to be a catalyst for the Class 4A No. 3 Tigers, Cherry noted, but he was quick to emphasize hitting first and foremost, calling his lineup a potential threat to any team.
On Thursday night, rival Hamilton Southeastern found out why.
Down 2-1 early to the visiting Royals (3-5), the Tigers’ bats came to life in the bottom of the third inning, striking for 10 runs en route to a 16-3 run-rule victory to take the first in the three-game Hoosier Crossroads Conference series.
The Tigers (7-3, 3-1 HCC) finished the Mudsock series opener with eight extra-base hits, three home runs and 12 hits overall. Navy commit Matthew Wolff capped the onslaught by crushing a walk-off grand slam over the left-field fence in the bottom of the fifth.
Wolff led the hit parade by going 3-for-4 with a double and seven RBI. The five-hole hitter’s two-out bomb was his first home run of the season.
“This is what our guys are capable of. We’ve done it a few times this year already,” Cherry said. “Our guys are swinging really well right now.”
The defending HCC champion Tigers entered the game hitting .298 and reached double-digit runs scored twice before, but their win against HSE was the first by run-rule this season.
Fishers improved to 3-1 in the HCC. Last week, the Tigers won the first two against Noblesville, but a 6-3 loss in the series finale versus the Millers last Friday didn’t sit well.
“That loss kind of fueled the fire,” Fishers senior Luke Albright said. “It fueled the fire for this series. It’s our biggest rival, and we wanted to come out and bring everything we got. When you’re so confident, and then you lose a tough one (to Noblesville), it’s disappointing, but you come back the next day and go after it.”
Albright did his part, earning the win with a three-hit performance through five innings. The Kent State recruit struck out five, walked three and retired five straight between the first and third innings.
HSE led 1-0 in the first inning after a two-out RBI double by Greyson Droste. The Royals (1-3 HCC) built a 2-1 lead in the top of the third behind an RBI-double by Matt Buckingham.
Jack DeWolf drove in the Royals’ final run in the top of the fourth, brining Jacob Daftari home after he reached with a leadoff double.
But the Royals had no answer for the Tigers’ mammoth bottom of the third.
Kiel Brenczewski, a Navy commit, tied the game 2-2 with a double to deep left field, scoring Craig Yoho, who finished 1-for-2 with a double.
A two-run one-out double by Wolff kept the rally going as the Tigers loaded the bases twice and chased HSE starter Tyler Schweitzer after two and one third innings.
“We wanted to get to their bullpen as soon as possible and we did that,” Albright said.
A bases-loaded RBI bunt by Nick Lukac stirred the rivals as Wolff scored on a close call at the plate from third base. A two-run double by Ben Burton in the next at-bat paired with a throwing error – the Royals’ second miscue in the inning – increased the lead to 9-2.
Lukac crossed home plate on the errant throw, which sailed into the Tigers dugout. Burton, who reached third on the play, was later awarded home for an unorthodox inside-the-park home run.
“That 10-run inning, we have the call at the plate. He was out. I’m going to say it. He was out, and then you have a play in right (with a dropped ball). If you make plays, you get out of innings,” Royals’ head coach Scott Henson said. “That’s something we’re having a hard time with right now. It’s something we need to get better at, and we will.”
A home run by J.J. Woolwine, who went 2-for-4, followed by Grant Richardson’s third homer of the year with two-outs closed out the frame. The Tigers sent 13 batters to the plate in the third. Fishers’ one through five hitters went 10-for-16 in the game with seven extra-base hits.
“You can’t give them extra opportunities. You can’t fall behind. They are a good hitting team when they have the count in their favor, which is true of any team,” Henson said. “If you don’t ahead, you don’t get outs when you’re given them, in this league and this level, it’s not going to go well for you.”
Cole Graverson settled down in the bottom of the fourth to sit the Tigers down in order after surrendering both home runs in the third. The sophomore lefty went two and one third innings and retired five straight before Drew Switzer relieved him in the fifth.
From there, the Tigers’ hitters strung together one more surge.
“We’ve seen this coming in our last couple of games. We’ve put a lot of hits together, and I think we were just waiting for one big inning,” Wolff said. “It was just awesome to see.”
Richardson, who went 2-for-3 with three runs scored, walked on four straight pitches to load the bases in the bottom of the fifth, and Brenczewski drew another two-out walk for an RBI to bring up Wolff.
From there, the senior third baseman added the fireworks.
“I think it speaks a lot to the HCC that we’re ready. We’re back and we don’t have to rebuild. We just reload,” said Wolff, who leads the Tigers with 15 RBIs on the season. “They’re a great team. We just came out and hit really well today and played some really good baseball. We just have to come out and do that every day.”
The Tigers travel to HSE today for Game 2 at 6 p.m. before returning home on Saturday for the finale at noon.
“I still think we got some left in the tank,” Wolff said.
Fishers 16, Hamilton Southeastern 3
(5 innings)
Southeastern AB R H RBI
Anthony Eggers 1 2 0 0
Cole DeWael 2 0 0 0
*PH Tyler Jahanshahi 1 0 0 0
Matt Buckingham 2 0 1 1
Greyson Droste 3 0 1 1
Jacob Daftari 2 1 1 0
Brayton Harrison 1 0 0 0
Jack DeWolf 2 0 0 1
Jake Stout 2 0 0 0
Jacob Garcia 2 0 0 0
Totals 18 3 3 3
2B: Buckingham, Droste, Daftari.
HSE pitching IP R ER H
Tyler Schweitzer 2.1 9 4 7
Cole Graverson 2.1 2 2 2
Drew Switzer 0.0 5 5 3
Strikeouts: Schweitzer 2, Graverson 1. Walks: Schweitzer 2, Graverson 1, Switzer 1.
Fishers AB R H RBI
J.J. Woolwine 4 2 2 1
Craig Yoho 2 2 1 0
Grant Richardson 3 3 2 1
Kiel Brenczewski 3 0 2 2
*PR Grant Whetsel 0 3 0 0
Matthew Wolff 4 2 3 7
Alex Jamieson 2 1 0 0
Jack Roudebush 3 1 0 0
Nick Lukac 2 1 1 1
Ben Burton 3 1 1 2
Totals 26 16 12 14
HR: Richardson, Woolwine, Wolff. 3B: Brenczewski. 2B: Yoho, Brenczewski, Wolff, Burton. SAC: Harrison. SB: Wolff. HBP: Lukac, Brenczewski.
Fishers pitching IP R ER H
Luke Albright (W) 5 3 2 3
Strikeouts: Albright 5. Walks: Albright 3.
Score by innings
Hamilton Southeastern 101 10 – 3 9 2
Fishers 01(10) 05 – 1 4 5