By CRAIG ADKINS
NOBLESVILLE – In the Hoosier Crossroads Conference, rivalries run deep and it really doesn’t matter which teams meet up on a given night. On Thursday night at Dunker Field in Noblesville, it was no different in the first of two meetings this week with the Class 4A No. 1 Fishers Tigers and the host Millers.
Fishers was able to put together a couple key innings en route to claiming their third conference win in as many tries, 4-3.
The Tigers managed to get their offense started right away in the first. Carson Dunn one-hopped a triple to the fence in right center. Then, it was super sophomore Jack Brown belting what appeared to be a routine fly ball to right. The ball kept floating and dropped over the right field fence for a two-run home run off the bat of Brown to give Fishers an early 2-0 lead.
“He is very, very special,” said Fishers head coach Matthew Cherry. “ He’s such a team guy. He came back into the dugout and said that he was just trying to hit a sac fly. He came up the next at-bat and hit a single up the middle,” Cherry continued on the sophomore Brown.
“We’ve been harping on our guys with two strike approaches and he took the elevated fastball out over the plate and drove it the other way, so it was a great start for us,” stated Cherry on how his team was able to hit against Noblesville.
JP Preston reached on an error by Noblesville second baseman Luke Wilson on a hard-hit grounder, but would be stranded at first. The Millers’ sophomore starting pitcher Lucas Stephan wound up striking out the side, despite giving up the two runs.
“Lucas was awesome tonight. That’s the type of outing we need from him,” said Noblesville head coach Justin Keever on his sophomore hurler.
“He was much better at locating tonight than he has been in the first two outings. Tonight, he was down in the zone. He got up a couple times in the first, some wind-aided extra-base hits got him, but the rest of the game he was down,” Keever continued on the pitching of Stephan.
Stephen would finish the game with eight strikeouts, giving up seven hits and walking none in his six innings of work.
“Give a lot of credit to Stephan. He pitched really well, changed speeds on us, kept us off balance and we were able to get to him,” said Cherry, complimenting Noblesville starter Stephan.
Tigers starter Tate Warner was able to retire nine of the first 10 Millers he faced before Noblesville was able to get to him.
Nolan Decker led off the bottom of the fourth with a double on-the-fly to the fence in left center. Trevor Corbett walked on four pitches, ball four was a passed ball that sent Decker home to score and cut the Fishers lead to 2-1. Bryce Riggs got plunked in the back for two aboard and nobody out.
Josh Kern laid down a beautiful sacrifice bunt to plate Corbett, tying the game at 2-2. The Millers would take a 3-2 lead on a Connor Bloss sacrifice fly to right, scoring Riggs.
“I’m really proud of the way our guys competed. We did a lot of great things tonight,” stated Keever on his team’s effort that came up just short.
Joey Wilmoth came in to relieve Warner in the fifth and threw pretty much a flawless three innings, fanning five and walking two to earn the win.
“Joey, in the offseason really wanted to start, but has really bought into his role of coming out of the bullpen and is doing a great job at it,” stated Cherry, praising Wilmoth’s relief effort to seal the win.
Jack Brown led off the top of the sixth, roping a single right up the middle. Two batters later, Caulin Brown singled to shallow left down the line. Fishers would regain the lead when senior Dominic Oliverio came off of the Tigers’ bench for a pinch-hit two run single that drove in Brown and courtesy runner Curtis Kearschner, overtaking the Millers 4-3 with what wound up being the winning run.
“I’m just proud of our guys for continuing to fight back. I’ve got to give a shout out to Dom Oliverio, who we took him out of the lineup today and put him in that big spot. He saw three straight off-speed pitches, stayed on it and drove it to left to take the lead,” said Cherry on Oliverio’s game-winning hit in the sixth.
Noblesville (3-5, 1-2 HCC) drops its third game in a row and will hope to split the series tonight before hosting Carmel on Saturday night. The Millers managed just two hits while coming up just short against the top-ranked Tigers.
Fishers (7-1, 3-0 HCC) won their fourth in a row and will host Noblesville in the second game of the HCC series tonight.
FISHERS 4, NOBLESVILLE 3
Fishers AB R H RBI
Joey Brenczewski 4 0 1 0
Carson Dunn 4 1 1 0
Jack Brown 3 2 3 2
Jackson Preston 3 0 0 0
Caulin Brown 3 0 1 0
Joe Hietpas 2 0 0 0
Dominic Oliverio 1 0 1 2
Zach Cox 3 0 0 0
Gavin Clayton 2 0 0 0
Quinn Seefeldt 1 0 0 0
Huey Dunn 3 0 0 0
Curtis Kearschner 0 1 0 0
Totals 29 4 7 4
HR: J. Brown. 3B: C. Dunn.
Fishers pitching IP R ER H
Tate Warner 4 3 3 3
Joey Wilmoth (W) 3 0 0 0
Strikeouts: Wilmoth 6, Warner 3. Walks: Wilmoth 2, Warner 1.
Noblesville AB R H RBI
Kolby Kazmierski 3 0 0 0
Nolan Decker 2 1 1 0
Trevor Corbett 2 1 0 0
Bryce Riggs 2 1 0 0
Josh Kern 3 0 1 1
Conner Bloss 2 0 0 1
Luke Wilson 2 0 0 0
Jacob Edwards 3 0 1 0
Drew Niswonger 2 0 0 0
Tyler Utterback 0 0 0 0
Conner Seago 0 0 0 0
Totals 21 3 3 2
2B: Decker. SB: Decker. SAC: Bloss. HBP: Riggs.
NHS pitching IP R ER H
Lucas Stephan 6 4 4 7
Eli Ketterer 1 0 0 0
Strikeouts: Stephan 8. Walks: none.
Score by Innings
Fishers 200 002 0 – 4 7 0
Noblesville 000 300 0 – 3 3 3