By RICHIE HALL
WESTFIELD – As he watched his Fishers baseball team celebrate its third sectional championship in the past four tournaments, Tigers coach Matt Cherry gave his players high marks for their performance in the sectional final.
“They played unbelievable,” said Cherry. “I think we had the one error in the first. Other than that, I’m not sure that we did anything else wrong.”
Fishers did many things right during their 4-0 win over Noblesville Monday in the final of the Class 4A Westfield sectional. It was basic baseball: Timely hitting, solid defense and an outstanding outing on the mound by Tate Warner.
Warner only allowed two hits to the Millers for the entire game, while striking out six and issuing only one walk.
“Oh, we were really pumped,” said Warner. “When we got to school in the morning, we were just non-stop talking about this.”
“Tate was unbelievable on the mound, pounded the zone,” said Cherry. “C.B. (Caulin Brown) was great behind the dish, getting strikes. We played great defense. Just huge, huge credit to our guys.”
Meanwhile, the Fishers offense scored two runs in the second inning to get on the board. Gavin Clayton singled in JP Preston for the first run, then Warner scored on a wild pitch.
The Tigers scored their other two runs in the fifth inning. Dom Oliverio led off with a triple, then was sent home by Carson Dunn’s sacrifice fly. Joey Brenczewski got on with a base hit, and eventually scored on a wild pitch.
Brown also hit a double for the Tigers, who are now 20-12 for the season.
“We faced a lot of adversity early,” said Cherry. “It was a great opportunity to talk about life and how they’re going to face adversity in life early in the year. And they’ve grown. They’ve learned a lot about it. And they’ve come together and this is the result of it. They’ve learned how to fight through adversity and compete and knowing that there’s always another day.”
Noblesville’s two hits were a double from Conner Bloss and a single by Drew Niswonger. The Millers finished their season 15-17, but not before getting coach Justin Keever’s 300th career win Saturday in their semi-final win over Westfield.
Fishers advances to the Kokomo regional on Saturday. The Tigers will play No. 8-ranked Homestead in the second semi-final, which will begin around 1 p.m. The first semi-final between Fort Wayne Northrop and Harrison, will start at 11 a.m. The winners play for the championship at 8 p.m.
FISHERS 4, NOBLESVILLE 0
Noblesville AB R H RBI
Dean White 2 0 0 0
Kolbi Kazmierski 3 0 0 0
Mason Bohland 3 0 0 0
Bryce Adams 3 0 0 0
Conner Bloss 3 0 1 0
Luke Wilson 2 0 0 0
Jacob Weiler 2 0 0 0
Bryce Riggs 2 0 0 0
Drew Niswonger 2 0 1 0
Totals 22 0 2 0
2B: Bloss. HBP: Wilson.
NHS pitching IP R ER H
Michael Stremlaw 4.1 4 2 5
Lucas Stephen 0.1 0 0 1
Noah Bennington 1.1 0 0 0
Strikeouts: Stremlaw 2, Bennington 2. Walks: Stremlaw 1, Bennington 1.
Fishers AB R H RBI
Carson Dunn 2 0 0 1
Joey Brenczewski 3 1 1 0
Jack Brown 3 0 1 0
Caulin Brown 3 0 1 0
JP Preston 2 1 1 0
Jack Braun 3 0 0 0
Tate Warner 1 1 0 0
Gavin Clayton 3 0 1 1
Dom Oliverio 3 1 1 0
Matt Bryant 0 0 0 0
Totals 23 4 6 2
3B: Oliverio. 2B: C. Brown. SAC: Dunn. HBP: Warner.
Fishers pitching IP R ER H
Warner 7 0 0 2
Strikeouts: Warner 6. Walks: Warner 1.
Score by Innings
Noblesville 000 000 0 – 0 2 1
Fishers 020 020 x – 4 6 1