Baseball: ‘Hounds use 10-run sixth to beat Millers, keep the oar

By CRAIG ADKINS
NOBLESVILLE – When the Carmel Greyhounds and Noblesville Millers meet up on the baseball diamond, it’s always a tough battle and the game is more than likely not decided until late in the contest.
This was the case last night at Dunker Field in Noblesville. The visiting Greyhound offense exploded for a 10-run top of the sixth to secure the win over the Millers, 10-2.
Noblesville was able to get its offense on the board first in the bottom of the second. Connor Bloss was hit by a pitch. Two batters later, Luke Wilson doubled down the left field line to put runners at second and third with two outs. Drew Niswonger then hit a hard single right by Carmel second baseman Cam Carmichael, driving home both Bloss and Wilson for a 2-0 Miller lead.
Both pitchers were settled in at that point and it was only a matter of time before something gave one way or the other.
Noblesville starter Nolan Decker gave up just two hits and struck out four in his four innings and Carmel starter Cam Heaney allowed four hits over five frames with two earned runs, only one earned.
Eli Ketterer relieved Decker in the fifth and the momentum shifted to the Greyhounds. Nathan MacLaren singled and was stranded when Hunter Snow was picked off first base trying to advance to second.
The Millers left two runners on in the home half of the fifth, still clinging to a 2-0 lead, but that wouldn’t last long.
Griffin Wolf was hit by a pitch with one out. Tripp Schroeder singled up the middle, followed by Dan Cunningham striking out swinging, but the dropped third strike became a passed ball to load the bases.
Adam Buczkowski singled up the middle to score Wolf. Carmichael then drove in Schroeder on a single to tie the game 2-2.
Then, things went from bad to worse for Noblesville and Carmel capitalized in a big way.
With two outs and with Garrick Addison coming in out of the Miller bullpen, Cunningham scored on a passed ball, Next, MacLaren lofted a two-run double down the left field line to make it 5-2.
Hunter Snow doubled to center, tailing a ball away from Niswonger to score MacLaren and increase the lead to 6-2.
Cody Kantz laced a single up the middle off of Aidan Shoemaker, Noblesville’s fourth pitcher and the score was now 7-2.
Wolf walked and then Schroeder roped a two-run single to center. Scoring Wolf and Kantz, pushing it to 9-2.
The Carmel scoring would stop at 10 runs in the sixth on Cunningham’s double down the left field line to score Schroeder.
“That inning caught up to us. We made some bad plays,” said Noblesville head coach Justin Keever on the top of the sixth, which knocked the wind out of the Millers’ sails.
“I felt like offensively the first five innings, our swings were a little bit long,” said Carmel head coach Matt Buczkowski on his team’s slow start at the plate.
“Most of our misses were underneath the ball. We talked to our hitters about making adjustments, knee-high line drives, just hit the ball hard on the ground,” continued Buczkowski on his team’s hitting adjustments that led to scoring 10 runs in the sixth.
On a night when the air temperature was cool and getting colder, the best idea was to keep the ball down, because it was that much harder for the ball to fly off of the bat.
“To our kids’ credit, they did a great job of buying into that adjustment and sometimes it just falls in like that,” said Buczkowski, complimenting his team on adjusting its hitting approach on the fly.
The Greyhounds forced the Millers to leave four runners on base over the final two innings to help stave off any sort of comeback by the hosts, winning the Hamilton County rivalry game, 10-2.
Noblesville (4-6) doesn’t get a break as it will play on Monday against Greenfield-Central (4-4), who split a doubleheader at Fishers Saturday.
Carmel (1-2) grabbed its first win of the season and did it in obviously grand fashion. After losing at home 8-6 Friday night to Mooresville, the Greyhounds bounced back nicely. They too will play on Monday, heading to Westfield to face the undefeated, Class 4A No. 2 Shamrocks (7-0)
MacLaren was 4-for-5 with two RBI’s, Snow managed three hits in five at-bats, while Schroeder was 2-of-4 driving in two and Carmichael also joined the multi-hit parade for Carmel.

CARMEL 10, NOBLESVILLE 2
Carmel AB R H RBI
Nathan McLaren 5 1 5 2
Hunter Snow 5 1 3 1
Cody Kantz 3 1 1 1
Griffin Wolf 1 2 0 0
Tripp Schroeder 4 0 2 2
Dan Cunningham 4 1 1 1
Adam Buczkowski 3 0 1 1
Kenny Bruntlett 1 0 0 0
Cam Carmichael 3 1 1 1
Tyler Walkey 0 0 0 0
JD Stein 4 0 1 0
Drew Fouts 0 1 0 0
Nathan Williams 0 2 0 0
Totals 33 10 15 9
2B: Snow 2, Cunningham, MacLaren, Schroeder. SB: Kantz 2, Wolf 2, Carmichael. HBP: Wolf 2.
Carmel pitching IP R ER H
Cam Heaney (W) 5 2 1 4
Aidan McConnell 1 0 0 1
James Ross 1 0 0 2
Strikeouts: Ross 3, Heaney 2. Walks: Heaney 2, McConnell 1.
Noblesville AB R H RBI
Kolby Kazmierski 4 0 1 0
Nolan Decker 4 0 0 0
Trevor Corbett 2 0 1 0
Elijah Bowers 1 0 0 0
Bryce Riggs 4 0 1 0
Josh Kern 4 0 1 0
Conner Bloss 2 1 1 0
Jacob Edwards 2 0 0 0
Luke Wilson 2 1 1 0
Drew Niswonger 2 0 1 2
Totals 27 2 7 2
HBP: Bloss.
NHS pitching IP R ER H
Decker 4.0 0 0 4
Eli Ketterer 1.1 2 2 3
Garrick Addison 0.1 5 0 4
Aidan Shoemaker 0.0 3 1 2
Kern 1.1 0 0 2
Strikeouts: Decker 5, Addison 2, Kern 2. Walks: Decker 2, Shoemaker 1.
Score by Innings
Carmel 000 00(10) 0 – 10 15 2
Noblesville 020 000 0 – 2 7 1