Baseball: Tigers fend off Bulldogs, clinch outright HCC title

By RICHARD TORRES

For The Reporter

FISHERS – Fishers senior Reid Garber hadn’t given up an earned run all season, and he wasn’t about to start on Thursday night at Tiger Field.

Called in to relieve Tigers’ ace Owen Sanders with the bases loaded and no outs in the top of the fourth inning, Garber went to work, and Fishers responded to fend off the visiting Brownsburg Bulldogs during the first of their two-game Hoosier Crossroads Conference series.

Garber induced a sacrifice fly to deep left field, which gave the Bulldogs (13-8, 5-8 HCC) a momentary 4-2 lead in the fourth, and then the right-hander prompted a bases-loaded double play on a grounder to shortstop to diffuse the threat.

A three-run bottom of the fifth for the Tigers swung the momentum, while the undefeated Garber (6-0) pitched 3.0 innings with two hits allowed, one walk and two strikeouts.

Junior Owen Lukac, an Evansville recruit, collected his third save with a 1-2-3 top of the seventh to clinch Fishers’ second HCC title in four years.

Fishers’ come-from-behind 5-4 victory secured the program’s fourth conference title in eight years and first since 2022 when they went 12-2 in the HCC.

“I really trust my defense. I really trust these guys backing me up, so I’m going out there with full confidence that I’m going to come out without giving up at least one run,” said Garber, who has gone 26.0 inning without surrendering an earned run. “We have a great bond on this team.”

The Class 4A second-ranked Tigers (23-4, 12-1 HCC) are, in a word, “special,” according to head coach Matthew Cherry, who lovingly coined his 2025 squad the “Cardiac Tigers.”

“We come from behind. We play defense. We pitch it. We find ways to win. I thought Brownsburg outplayed us tonight, but we just found a way to win,” Cherry said. “That’s what they do. They literally don’t care as long as they win. They don’t have to hit the bomb. They just compete.”

A one-out RBI single by sophomore Carter Strole (1-for-3) in the bottom of the second put Fishers ahead 1-0, and an RBI single from senior Luke Cherry (1-for-2) in the bottom of the third broke a 1-1 tie.

The Tigers had five hits led by senior Huston Dunn (2-for-3, double), a Ball State commit, and earned six walks compared to Brownsburg’s nine hits and five walks.

However, Fishers’ lineup chased Brownsburg starter Drew Jennings, a Bellarmine commit, in the bottom of the fifth and loaded the bases five times.

A bases-loaded wild pitch cut Fishers’ deficit 4-3 before a pair of walks plated two more. The Tigers logged five walks and one hit batter in the frame without a single hit to take the lead.

“We kind of win each and every way. Our coach calls us ‘Cardiac Tigers’ because we’re never out of it. We always bounce back. Even when we were down 4-2 tonight, we still bounced back,” Garber said. “We’re building momentum here. This is my last year playing baseball, so I’m trying to win as many games as possible. This means a lot. No college plans, so one last ride.”

Sanders threw 75 pitches over 3.0 innings before Garber relieved him. Despite giving up four straight hits and two runs in the fourth before exiting, Sanders battled and kept the Bulldogs from breaking the game open.

Garber backed up Sanders with a strong relief effort, as the Tigers’ middle infield defense came up clutch twice with runners on base.

Brownsburg stranded 10 runners overall and seven in scoring position.

“I’m so happy for (Garber). He’s awesome. The guys rise up for him when he comes in because they love him to death. They know he’s going to keep them in games. He’s just going to pitch to contact, and he just does his job,” Cherry said.

“For Reid to come in with the bases loaded and nobody out and to only give up one run on a sac fly there and then to get the double play to end the inning really sparked us coming into our half of the inning.”

Fishers concludes its regular-season schedule at Brownsburg today at 6:30 p.m.