By CRAIG ADKINS
For The Reporter
High school baseball fans will flock to Noblesville’s Dunker Field for the Class 4A Sectional 8 tournament this week. Easily dubbed as the top sectional and most competitive in the state, it includes five teams from the Hoosier Crossroads Conference and one of the top independent teams around.
The Hamilton Southeastern Royals (14-13) are the defending sectional champions. But, if you’re looking at records, Noblesville (22-6), Fishers (21-8) and Zionsville (21-7) look like the three favorites on paper, with Westfield (17-10) and Carmel (17-10) not far behind.
Combining for 66 sectional titles between the six schools makes it extremely difficult for others in the northern half of Class 4A down the tournament trail.
In the first game tonight at 5:30 p.m., No. 13 Carmel and No. 2 Noblesville meet up for the second time in two weeks. The Greyhounds paid a visit to the Millers on Monday May 13 and went home with a 5-3 win.
Carmel started off the season at 6-0 and through 10 games stood with a 9-1 mark. The Greyhounds have won five in a row and seven of eight heading into sectional play. Key wins over Class 3A No. 13, sweeping doubleheaders at No. 14 Penn to begin the season and at home against 3A No. 19 Fort Wayne Bishop Dwenger, along with recent wins over 10th-ranked 4A Evansville North and 3A No. 17 Peru have the ‘Hounds ready for the sectional. They also managed to go 3-2 against the Sectional 8 field.
Noblesville got off to a 5-1 start and after a 10-9 loss to Lake Central, the Millers put together a five-game winning streak. They had their biggest string of wins for 10 in a row toward the latter part of the season. After staying atop the HCC with a 12-0 record, the Millers dropped a double-dip to Zionsville last week to share the league title, their second in a row. Noblesville had lost three in a row of late but won two games last Saturday at Lafayette’s Loeb Stadium over Lafayette Jefferson (14-2) and Harrison (9-3) closing out the regular season on a high note. Going 6-3 versus Sectional 8, big wins came over third-ranked Mooresville, No. 8 Fishers (2), Class 1A No. 5 Rossville and 3A No. 13 Brebeuf Jesuit.
Wednesday night’s second game features a pair of Hoosier Crossroads Conference with Westfield and No. 6 Zionsville meeting up for the third time this month. The Rocks (10-1) and Eagles (7-1) split a doubleheader on May 2.
Westfield jumped out 5-0 and through nine games were 8-1. Five of their losses were by three runs or less in a somewhat up-and-down regular season that saw the Shamrocks go 8-6 in the HCC. The big plus currently is the five-game winning streak they currently sport and have also won seven of eight heading into sectional play, where they have a 2-7 against the other five. Westfield was able to grab big wins over sixth-ranked Zionsville, Class 2A No. 10 Lapel and Avon (2), while also giving No. 1 Center Grove all it had on the road, losing to the Trojans 12-11 in 11 innings.
Zionsville is one of the hotter teams around. They too were 5-0 and then lost four straight but were able to follow that up with a five-game winning streak to straighten things out. Since losing to Cathedral at home on April 9, the Eagles have gone a remarkable 16-3 to finish out the regular season. Riding a four-game win streak heading into sectional that started with a win over top-ranked Center Grove, No. 8 Fishers, No. 13 Carmel and grabbing two wins at No. 2 Noblesville to share the HCC title with the Millers. The Eagles also have a 7-2 record against their sectional foes.
The battle for the Mudsock is always quite the battle, whether it’s regular season or in the sectional. Friday night’s second semifinal will be the fourth meeting of the season between the two rivals from the same school district. The No. 8 Tigers and Royals played three regular season games, but only the first two counted in the HCC league standings. Fishers took the HCC series 7-6 and 9-3, but HSE grabbed a win in the third game, 9-2.
Fishers had a tough start to their season. Going 5-3 through eight games, they dropped three straight and sat at 5-6 after losing two in a doubleheader sweep at Noblesville. The Tigers won seven in a row before the loss to the Royals. Since that point, Fishers has gone 9-1. In recent weeks, head coach Matthew Cherry won his 300th game at Fishers. A 6-4 record against Sectional 8, Fishers has big wins over Homestead (at Taylor University), No. 6 Zionsville, Mt. Vernon, Carmel, Avon (2) and No. 12 New Palestine.
Hamilton Southeastern was 5-2 to begin its season, but struggled to string together wins mid-season. After getting swept in an HCC series by Noblesville, the Royals won three in a row over Hamilton Heights, Anderson and Westfield. HSE has another three-game win streak currently and looks to keep it going tonight at home against Hamilton Heights (15-13), as both tune up for tournament play. Their regular season was highlighted by big wins over Avon, 2A No. 10 Lapel, No. 8 Fishers, Westfield and Franklin Central (2).
The first semifinal on Friday will be at 5:30 p.m. and features the winners of the Carmel/Noblesville and Westfield/Zionsville, followed by Fishers/HSE. The winners of the two semifinals will meet in the championship on Memorial Day at 2 p.m.