Millers sweep Saturday split doubleheader

By CRAIG ADKINS

For The Reporter 

As the weather goes in the spring in Indiana, games get postponed and schedules changed.

That was the case with the second game of Noblesville’s Hoosier Crossroads Conference series with Franklin Central and the Saturday, April 25 original match up with Eastern. The Friday, April 24 game with the Flashes got moved to Saturday because of storms that rolled through.

Game two with the Flashes started at noon and resulted in a 4-0 win, sweeping both games in the series. They followed that up with a 10-0 victory over the 2A No. 9 Eastern Comets in five innings.

Noblesville 4, Franklin Central 0

The Millers got their first run in the bottom of the first. Ethan Clark was hit by a pitch, then Aiden Reynolds walked for two on. Three hitters later with two down, Jackson Graf sent Clark home on a base hit to right.

In the home half of the second, Garrett Dixon got on with a one-out walk. Blake Riggs came in to courtesy run. Then, Chris Martz got hit by a pitch and Clark walked to load the bases. Reynolds would also get hit, allowing Riggs to score for the 2-0 lead.

The other pair scored in the fourth. Dixon and Martz walked consecutively. Reynolds roped a double to left that scored both courtesy runner Riggs and Martz to account for the final score.

Hits were hard to come by as each team had three.

Eli Hall started and pitched three solid innings, giving up just one hit, walking one and striking out six. Griffin Snider qualified for the win, throwing the final four innings. Snider was just as productive out of the bullpen. He gave up just two hits, two walks and whiffed seven.

Noblesville 10, Eastern 0 (5 innings)

In the second game, Noblesville welcomed Eastern for their regularly scheduled game that originally was slated for 1 p.m. but was pushed back to around 3:15 p.m. to accommodate the HCC game.

For the second time in three games it took one big inning to put the game away.

The Millers struck first in their first at-bats in the first inning like they did against Franklin Central.

Ethan Clark led off with a walk. Two batters later, Clark scored on a sacrifice fly by Slade Hodges for the early 1-0 score.

Zac Glander cruised on the mound in four innings, allowing just one hit from the Comets. Glander struck out three and walked just one to earn the win.

Noblesville then showed Eastern a taste of what it did in the top of the eighth at Franklin Central on Thursday by scoring 10. The Millers sent nine runners in to score for a 10-0 margin.

Hodges led off with a single to center. Brooks Riggs came up next with a double to right, sending Hodges to third. Christian Penaloza grounded a hit to left, scoring Hodges to make it 2-0.

Jalen Stidham came up next with a double to deep center, plating both Riggs and Penaloza to go up 4-0.

Stidham went home on a Logan Hash double to left for a 5-0 count. Reynolds scored Riggs with a single. Batting around, Hodges lined a single to third, sending Reynolds home for 8-0.

Brooks Riggs tripled home Hodges on a fly ball to center. Penaloza got his second run-producing hit in the inning, lining a hit to left to score Riggs for the final in five.

Quin Hendrich pitched the top of the fifth, striking out a pair and did not allow a hit, to combine for a one-hit shutout with Glander.

Hodges, Brooks Riggs and Penaloza each had two hits to account for six of the 10 Noblesville hits.