By RICHARD TORRES
For The Reporter
NOBLESVILLE – The Noblesville Millers opened Monday evening in a celebratory mood after honoring the 10-year anniversary of their 2014 Class 4A state championship season.
However, by night’s end, those good feelings faded, as the visiting Carmel Greyhounds upset the 4A No. 2 Millers, 5-3, at Dunker Field.
In a preview of next week’s 4A Sectional 8 quarterfinal on May 22 at The Dunk, the Greyhounds jumped out fast behind a two-run home run from Baylor recruit Hunter Snow in the top of the first inning and halted the Millers’ 10-game winning streak.
The Greyhounds pitching trio of Cincinnati recruit Adam Buczkowski, Gabe Mathison and Cal Carmichael combined for a two-hitter and despite walking 10 batters overall found a way to disrupt the red-hot Millers.
Noblesville (20-4), which clinched a share of the Hoosier Crossroads Conference title last week, was coming off a stretch of six straight league wins that pushed their HCC record to 12-0.
Against the Greyhounds (13-10), the Millers’ offense fell quiet, and their home record dropped to 9-2.
“We didn’t play particularly well obviously, but give Carmel credit, they made plays to win. We did a lot of uncharacteristic things tonight that haven’t been us all year,” Noblesville head coach Justin Keever said. “I suppose that happens, but if we want to do special things, they can’t happen, so hopefully, we learn from it and we go from there.”
The Millers worked the count and had three batters hit by a pitch, but 11 strikeouts and 11 runners left on base (six in scoring position) kept the deficit intact.
Carmel had lost four of its last six games prior, but Snow’s one-out bomb over the right-field fence after DePauw commit Tyler Walkey (1-for-3) reached base with a single put the win in motion.
“We kind of went on a drought there. We couldn’t get anything to go for us. No momentum, but this helps us with a couple more games left this week and helps with the confidence, for sure,” said Snow, who went 2-for-4. “This helps our momentum going forward. We’re talented, and we have to believe it.”
The Greyhounds led 3-0 by the second after manufacturing a run in the top half. Gabriel Silva laced a leadoff double and advanced on a sacrifice bunt by John Zangrilli before a sacrifice fly to right field brought him home.
Noblesville’s Eli Hall, who was charged with the loss, started the first three innings with five hits allowed and three runs surrendered.
The Millers turned to DePauw recruit Lucas Stephan in the fourth inning, and he struck out one and avoided potential disaster following two Noblesville fielding errors. Two induced outfield pop ups left both runners stranded.
Notre Dame commit Joe Glander took over for the Millers in the top of the fifth, and the Greyhounds gained the advantage rapidly with two leadoff walks.
Carmel drew three walks in the inning, plating two runs for a 5-2 lead off an RBI groundout by Parker Heaney and a wild pitch by Glander.
“I was proud of our at-bats against him because that’s a good arm and we laid off that high fastball when we needed to,” Carmel coach Ty Neal said. “We sat on some balls down, and then we capitalized. We didn’t even have a hit and we scored two runs that inning. That’s good team baseball.”
Josh Peek, the Millers’ fourth pitcher of the game, continued to keep the Greyhounds hitless through the final 1.2 innings, walking one batter. Carmel’s five hits were all recorded in the first three frames.
J.D. Stein was 1-for-3 for Carmel with a double. The Greyhounds had three extra-base hits and struck out four times – three times against Glander, who walked four and with one earned run in 1.1 innings pitched.
“We just have to play better. We kind of got outside ourselves at the plate in some of our approaches, but we’ll go back to work and get after it in the Zionsville series which hopefully will clinch (the HCC),” Keever said. “We have a share, so we just hope we get it by ourselves now.”
The Millers showed their grit in the second to cut the deficit 3-1 behind a sacrifice fly to right field by Glander to score McCoy Fulk, who reached on a walk and advanced with a pickoff error at first base and later a wild pitch.
Carmel had three errors resulting in two runs.
Noblesville used a two-out fielding error to extend the bottom of the third, and a delayed double steal with runners on the corners brought Indiana commit Aiden Reynolds (1-for-1) home from third base to make it 3-2.
Buczkowski ended the threat with a strikeout and two runners stranded. The senior right-hander pitched 4.0 innings with six strikeouts, three walks, one hit allowed, one earned run and three hit batters.
Mathison earned the save with two hitless frames, three strikeouts, six walks and one earned run allowed in the sixth on a bases-loaded wild pitch.
The Millers loaded the bases twice in the inning behind four walks, but a strikeout ended the rally.
A leadoff double by Nolan Decker, a Troy recruit, to lead off the bottom of the seventh marked Noblesville’s first hit since the first – a single by Reynolds – but Carmichael struck out two and forced a game-ending groundout.
Next week, Carmel will attempt to eliminate Noblesville in pursuit of the program’s first sectional title since 2016. Noblesville is chasing its first title since 2014 – the same year they won both the HCC and state.
“It was great to see the guys (from 2014). We tried to do this two weeks ago, and it got rained out,” Keever said. “It felt so good to see them. It’s a special group of guys, and they also had their own bumps in the road along the way, too. And they learned from it.”