By RICHIE HALL
Before Thursday night, Noblesville’s last softball sectional championship came in 2015.
That’s not that long ago, but to the majority of the players on the Millers’ young team, winning the sectional was a new feeling, one they got to experience after beating Carmel 4-2 in the title game of Class 4A Sectional 8 at Westfield.
“My freshman year (2016) we made it to the championship and we lost, and I feel like it’s a long time coming,” said junior Emily Minett. “We’ve worked so hard this season and it’s starting to pay off.”
In order to get that first payoff, Noblesville had to get past a fired-up Greyhounds team. Carmel came to play, and had the first highlight-reel play of the game: Left fielder Ariana Zdobylak made an incredible running one-handed catch in the first inning, a catch that saved at least one run.
The ‘Hounds got on the board first, with two runs in the top of the third inning. After absorbing two outs, Megan Nichols got on base with a single, then Stormy Kotzelnick pounded a double, moving Nichols to third. Sydney Fox drove them both home with a right field hit.
The Millers got one run back in the bottom of the third. Olivia Stinson bunted on to first base and Chloe Tragesser moved her to second after reaching on error. Carmel pitcher Sommer Edwards retired the next two batters, but that brought Minett up, and her right field single got Stinson home.
“We’ve played a lot of one-run games and we’ve been on the wrong side of a lot of those one-run games,” said Millers coach Deke Bullard. “But that really tests your composure and really helps you be battle-tested for those tight games. We know that’s what we’re going to get from here on out. Everything’s going to be close.”
The score remained 2-1 until the fifth inning, when Noblesville added three runs. Stinson and Tragesser hit back-to-back singles, with Stinson stealing second right before Tragesser’s hit. Tragesser then took second base, and Shea Sterrett came in to courtesy run for her.
After a strikeout, Madison Taylor came up and sent a single into left field, sending both Stinson and Sterrett home. Abby Harvey then entered the game as a courtesy runner for Taylor. Carmel got a flyout for the second out – another incredible catch by left fielder Zdobylak – but Julia Furiak delivered on the next at-bat, hitting a double to score Harvey.
“We were playing good defense and we were hitting the ball hard,” said Bullard. “It just was finding people. And we knew that if we kept hitting it hard, it would eventually find a hole and that’s ultimately what happened. We strung a couple hits together, got some people on base, were able to move them in and that’s ultimately the difference in the game.”
The remainder of the game went quickly, with no one else getting on base. Taylor pitched all seven innings for the Millers, striking out six. She retired the first eight batters she faced, then after allowing the two runs in the third inning, set down the next 13 batters in a row.
Minett said she was confident in Taylor the whole time.
“We just played well,” she said.
Stinson finished the game 3-for-4 at the plate, while Minett was 2-for-3. Carmel had four hits, one each for Kotzelnick (a double), Fox, Sarah Goddard and Nichols. Edwards pitched a complete game, with three strikeouts. Neither pitcher issued a walk.
Noblesville is 19-10 for the season and will advance to Tuesday’s Regional 4 at Harrison. The No. 4-ranked Raiders beat Kokomo 2-1 on Thursday to win Sectional 7 at Logansport.
“They’re a great team,” said Bullard. “We played them earlier in the year. They are an absolutely dynamite team, loaded from top to bottom, and it is going to be an absolute challenge for us.”
Carmel finished its season at 12-17.
Noblesville 4, Carmel 2
Carmel AB R H RBI
Stormy Kotzelnick 3 1 1 0
Sydney Fox 3 0 1 2
Sarah Goddard 3 0 1 0
Darby Roberts 3 0 0 0
Sophia Derziotis 3 0 0 0
Maddie Searles 2 0 0 0
Cate Harden 1 0 0 0
Sommer Edwards 3 0 0 0
Ariana Zdobylak 2 0 0 0
Megan Nichols 2 1 1 0
Totals 25 2 4 2
2B: Kotzelnick.
Carmel pitching IP R ER H
Edwards 6 4 3 9
Strikeouts: Edwards 3. Walks: none.
Noblesville AB R H RBI
Abby Brown 4 0 0 0
Olivia Stinson 4 2 3 0
Chloe Tragesser 2 0 1 0
Shea Sterrett 0 1 0 0
Ella White 3 0 0 0
Madison Taylor 3 0 1 2
Emily Minett 3 0 2 1
Alyssa Solomon 0 0 0 0
Julia Furiak 3 0 1 1
Maggie Hampton 3 0 1 0
Kyleigh Lowry 2 0 0 0
Abigail Harvey 0 1 0 0
Julia Skinner 0 0 0 0
Totals 27 4 9 4
2B: Furiak. SB: Solomon, Stinson, Tragesser. SAC: Tragesser. HBP: Lowry.
Noblesville pitching IP R ER H
Taylor 7 2 2 4
Strikeouts: Taylor 6. Walks: none.
Score by innings
Carmel 002 000 0 – 2 4 2
Noblesville 001 030 x – 4 9 0
Noblesville won its first softball sectional championship in three years on Thursday, beating Carmel 4-2 to win Class 4A Sectional 8 at Westfield. The Millers will play at No. 4-ranked Harrison Tuesday in the regional. (Richie Hall)