By RICHIE HALL
FISHERS – The Fishers baseball team has put its offensive frustrations from a couple weeks ago in the rear-view mirror.
Now, the Class 4A No. 3 Tigers are steaming ahead. Fishers had another solid outing at the plate on Thursday when it took Game 1 of the Mudsock series 8-1 over Hamilton Southeastern at the Tigers’ field.
Fishers had 12 hits on the night, including a 4-for-4 day from Carson Dunn and a home run from Dom Oliverio. Tigers coach Matt Cherry said that during those offensive struggles, there were some frustrating practices and challenges made.
“That was wise, because I believe in our guys and I know that they can play that way,” said Cherry. “They had great at bats. I just told them Joey Brenczewski set the tempo in his first at-bat. He got out, but he was down 0-2 in his first at-bat, he fouled off three or four pitches, grinded it out and made it known that we were going to fight and set the tempo for the rest of our team.”
Fishers got on the board in the second inning with three runs. Quinn Seefeldt got the first run on a wild pitch, then Huey Dunn singled in Dom Oliverio. Carson Dunn then batted in younger brother Huey Dunn, and the Tigers held a 3-0 lead.
Oliverio hit his homer in the third inning, also scoring Curtis Kearschner, and Fishers was up 5-0. The Tigers added two more runs in the fifth inning; Carson Dunn scored on Seefeldt’s RBI groundout, then Oliverio singled in Jack Brown. In the sixth inning, Brenczewski batted in Fishers’ final run of the game, a single that scored Gavin Kuzniewski.
The Royals scored their run in the seventh inning, when Hunter Wright was hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, scoring Clayton Wilke.
Oliverio and Huey Dunn both had two hits, with Oliverio totaling three RBIs. Tate Warner got the win, allowing three hits in six and one-third innings; at one point he retired 13 batters in a row. Cody Jones relieved him in the seventh inning and struck out the last two batters.
“It’s a big win, but we got to be mentally tough enough for them to wake up tomorrow and know that it’s baseball and be ready to play a game, because they’re going to want to come out and beat us,” said Cherry.
Cam Howard started for Southeastern, throwing three innings.
“I thought Cam Howard threw really, really well,” said Royals coach Jeremy Sassanella. “This was a big moment for Cam and he made some pretty good pitches, but we also had two great plays in the outfield.” Sassanella noted that Griffen Haas threw two batters out from right field.
“We did see some good stuff happening,” said Sassanella. “We’ve just go to get the bats going, but I’m proud of the kids, the way the kids competed. We just got to clean it up a little bit.”
Fishers is 12-4, while HSE is 5-10. The series moves to Southeastern’s Ken Seitz Field tonight for Game 2, with the first pitch at 6 p.m.
FISHERS 8, HAMILTON SOUTHEASTERN 1
Southeastern AB R H RBI
Landon Riekhof 3 0 0 0
Ty Bradle 4 0 1 0
Cole Earlewine 3 0 0 0
Harrison Dilts 3 0 1 0
Eli Miller 2 0 0 0
Christian Beal 1 0 0 0
Griffen Haas 2 0 0 0
Clayton Wilke 0 1 0 0
Maddux Bach 2 0 0 0
Ian Bucher 0 0 0 0
Zach Wagner 2 0 0 0
Chugga Rosario 0 0 0 0
Hunter Wright 2 0 1 1
Totals 24 1 3 1
HBP: Wright.
HSE pitching IP R ER H
Cam Howard 3 5 2 7
Sam Reagan 1 0 0 0
Eli Lantz 1 2 2 2
Jax O’Haver 1 1 1 3
Strikeouts: Howard 3, Reagan 2, Lantz 2. Walks: Lantz 1, O’Haver 1.
Fishers AB R H RBI
Joey Brenczewski 4 0 1 1
Carson Dunn 4 1 4 1
Jack Brown 3 1 1 0
Caulin Brown 4 0 0 0
Quinn Seefeldt 3 1 0 1
Dom Oliverio 3 2 2 3
JP Preston 3 0 1 0
Gavin Kuzniewski 2 1 0 0
Huey Dunn 3 1 2 1
Curtis Kearschner 0 1 0 0
Totals 29 8 11 7
HR: Oliverio. 2B: J. Brown, C. Dunn. SB: Oliverio 2, Brenczewski, J. Brown, H. Dunn, C. Dunn.
Fishers pitching IP R ER H
Tate Warner (W) 6.1 1 1 3
Cody Jones 0.2 0 0 0
Strikeouts: Warner 4, Jones 2. Walks: Warner 4.
Score by Innings
Southeastern 000 000 1 – 1 3 3
Fishers 032 021 x – 8 12 1