By CRAIG ADKINS
For The Reporter
NOBLESVILLE – After taking game one in Fishers on Thursday, the Tigers wasted no time to score on Friday night. Quick-answer offense played in Noblesville’s favor, as it would score early and often to claim a 10-6 home win.
Fishers scored right away in the top of the first. Carson Dunn led off getting hit by a Bryce Riggs pitch. He then scored on an RBI triple to the fence in left center on the fly by Jack Brown for a 1-0 edge. The next batter Gavin Clayton then doubled to right center to score Brown for an immediate 2-0 Tiger lead. After that, Riggs settled in for a while.
The Millers were able to respond in the bottom of the first and fight right back.
Consecutive walks to lead off by Trevor Corbett and Aiden Reynolds put two aboard quickly. They would both advance a base on a passed ball. Bryce Riggs drove them both in on a hard-hit grounder to Quinn Seefeldt at first, tying it 2-2.
Jack Shade walked with one out and both he and courtesy runner Logan Shoffner scored on a double down the left field line by Aiden Ramsey, helping the Millers capture a 4-2 lead, one they wouldn’t give back.
Ramsey advanced home on a Jacob Edwards single to right and then courtesy runner Conner Seago stole home, giving the Millers a 6-2 lead after one.
“Gavin (Kuzniewski) had a rough start today. I haven’t seen him do that for a while. He was a little bit underneath his fastball and wasn’t able to drive through and get it down in the zone,” said Fishers head coach Matthew Cherry.
Noblesville got three hits and three walks before the Millers chased Kuzniewski and forced Cherry to bring Kyle Manship out of the bullpen much earlier than normal.
“He knows he’s our stopper and go-to guy, but we typically like to get to him in the fifth, sixth or seventh. He can extend. He’s started for us before in the past. He did a good job coming in there. We gave 11 free bases, walking 11 guys. It’s hard to overcome that against a scrappy team,” continued Cherry.
It seemed whatever wasn’t going right for Fishers’ pitchers, Noblesville found ways to take advantage and capitalize.
“That’s Noblesville. We know that’s a part of our scouting report. They are going to compete and they are never out of it. It doesn’t matter if you punch them in the mouth or not, they are going to answer back,” stated Cherry.
“They had a hard time finding the zone and our guys stayed on their approaches and took what came to them and we just kept fighting,” said Noblesville head coach Justin Keever.
“We fought last night and lost a tough ball game. In the fifth inning, we let our guard down a little bit,” continued Keever.
Riggs kept his cool on the mound over the next four innings, for the most part. He allowed one in the fifth and two more in the sixth before Quinton Black came out of the bullpen.
The Millers added another in the bottom of the third on an RBI double from Edwards to make it 7-2.
Three more crossed home in the home half of the fourth as a result of four walks from Manship before he was pulled and it was now 10-2.
Noblesville took a more disciplined approach at the plate and it worked both early and often to take the second game of the HCC series.
“That’s one of the focuses we had all off-season. We have got to find out who we are individually as hitters and what we do well and capitalize on that and not get distracted by things we don’t do well,” said Keever.
Fishers fought back and scored four runs over the final three innings, but it wouldn’t be enough to fully come back, as Noblesville held on for a 10-6 win.
“I’m proud of our guys. We out-hit them and we put ourselves in position to score some runs. We chipped away and didn’t roll over and fold. I’m proud of our guys for competing,” stated Cherry.
“One-third of the way through the regular season, I think we have done a really good job of hanging on. Even last night, I loved our approaches,” continued Keever.
Fishers (6-5, 2-2 HCC) will continue its week today with a doubleheader at Greenfield-Central (6-1-1), starting at 10.
Jack Brown finished with two runs batted in, going 2-for-3 with a run scored. Carson Dunn scored three of the Tigers’ six runs.
Noblesville improves to 8-2 (3-1 HCC) and will play one game at noon. They visit the Carmel Greyhounds (6-1) in the Battle for the Oar in an all-county game.
Aiden Ramsey led the Millers with a 2-of-4 hitting night, two RBIs and two runs scored. Jacob Edwards also had two hits and drove in two. Bryce Riggs (3-0) got the win, throwing 5.1 innings and fanning six.
NOBLESVILLE 10, FISHERS 6
Fishers AB R H RBI
Carson Dunn 2 3 1 0
Jack Brown 2 1 2 2
Gavin Clayton 4 0 1 1
Quinn Seefeldt 3 0 0 1
Noah McPeek 4 1 2 0
Huston Dunn 3 1 1 0
Ben Hammond 2 0 0 0
Ethan Gardner 2 0 0 0
Brady Carman 1 0 0 0
Brevin Barker 1 0 0 0
Evan Doran 1 0 0 0
Totals 25 6 7 4
2B: Clayton, Brown. SB: Brown 2, C. Dunn 1. SAC: Brown, Seefeldt. HBP: C. Dunn 2, Brown.
Fishers pitching IP R ER H
Gavin Kuzniewski 0.1 6 4 2
Kyle Manship 3.0 4 4 2
Luke Grubb 1.2 0 0 0
Nick Schnaiter 1.0 0 0 0
Strikeouts: Manship 5, Grubb 3, Kuzniewski 1, Schnaiter 1. Walks: Manship 5, Kuzniewski 3, Grubb 3, Schnaiter 1.
Noblesville AB R H RBI
Trevor Corbett 1 2 0 0
Aiden Reynolds 2 2 0 0
Bryce Riggs 4 0 0 2
Nolan Decker 2 1 0 0
Jack Shade 2 1 0 1
Aiden Ramsey 4 2 2 3
Jacob Edwards 3 0 2 2
Josh Peek 1 0 0 0
Conner Seago 0 1 0 0
Hunter Corbett 3 0 0 0
Logan Shoffner 0 1 0 0
Totals 22 10 4 8
2B: Edwards, Ramsey. SB: Seago 3, Shoffner 2, Peek, Ramsey.
NHS pitching IP R ER H
Riggs (W) 5.1 5 2 7
Quinton Black 0.2 1 1 0
Lucas Stephan 1.0 0 0 0
Strikeouts: Riggs 6, Black 2, Stephan 1. Walks: Riggs 2.
Score by innings
Fishers 200 012 1 – 6 7 1
Noblesville 601 300 x – 10 4 1