By RICHIE HALL
CARMEL – With one swing of the bat, the Noblesville softball team went from being in a big hole to back on solid ground.
A fifth-inning grand slam by Cameron Grayson tied the game up, and gave the Millers the momentum for the remainder of their Class 4A Sectional 8 championship game with Carmel at the Greyhounds’ Cherry Tree Softball Complex. Noblesville went on to win 11-7 to claim its seventh sectional championship in program history.
“We knew it was going to be tough,” said Millers coach Deke Bullard. “We knew the Carmel team we played in early April was not going to be the same team that showed up. We knew it was going to be tough, without a doubt, and it always is. That makes it a little more rewarding.”
The two teams played each other on April 14, early in the season, with Noblesville winning 13-8. The Greyhounds came out firing, scoring two runs in the top of the first inning. Megan Nichols batted in Ella Ohrvall, then was sent home by a Caroline Roop single.
The Millers got on the board in the second inning when Gabby Fowler doubled in Lauren DeRolf. Carmel answered that in the top of the third when Roop smashed a home run into center field.
The Greyhounds’ lead increased to 4-1 in the top of the fourth inning; Ohrvall doubled in Lily Sullivan. Grayson led off the bottom of the fourth with a right field homer – a sign of things to come.
But Carmel can hit the long ball too, and Audrey Hussain showed that when she cracked a two-run homer in the fifth inning, also scoring Roop. That put the Greyhounds up 6-2.
“There wasn’t any panic, but we knew that was a big hole,” said Bullard. “We knew that Carmel was a good hitting team. Six to two is a big hole in a sectional game when there’s a lot of pressure and a lot of anxiety and everything else. So, we knew it was a big hole, but we just kept trying to chip away at it.”
Noblesville began the fifth inning with three straight singles. Myah Stuckey led off with a bunt to get on base, then Reis Sjoholm hit a pop-up single. Abby Harvey’s bunt loaded the bases.
After the Millers absorbed a pop out, Grayson came up to the plate. She smacked a 1-0 pitch into center field, sending everybody home and tying the game.
“As soon as I hit the ball, I knew it was gone and it was just a sigh of relief after being down the whole game,” said Grayson.
“We know that we can hit the long ball,” said Bullard. “But we had to go small to get runners on base. It took us a while to adjust to the pitching. But I felt like once we adjusted, our true colors started coming out with hard hits and the long ball flew in there a few times, so that certainly helps us.”
Noblesville was in control after that. Taylor Thompson put the Millers in front with her home run, a two-run homer into left field that also scored DeRolf. Lydia Nelson-Mercer got home when Sjoholm reached on error. That made it seven fifth-inning runs for Noblesville, which now led 9-6.
The Greyhounds got a run back in the top of the sixth inning when Kylie Cunningham batted in Sullivan. The Millers responded with two runs in the bottom of the inning: Ella White stole home, then Kira Thomas scored on DeRolf’s RBI fielder’s choice. Carmel got runners on first and second in the seventh inning with two outs, but a Grayson strikeout ended the game.
That turned out to be Grayson’s only strikeout of the game. She had pitched 19 innings this week in three sectional contests.
“Today before the game, I just tried to keep everything low key,” said Grayson. “I went and got lunch with my mom and then when I got here, I knew I had to show up and play. After throwing two games, Monday, Tuesday, I knew that I needed to give everything I got to finally finish out the sectional.”
Grayson and Myah Stuckey both had two hits for the game.
Carmel got two hits from Ohrvall, Roop and Sullivan, with Sullivan hitting a double. The Greyhounds finished their season 15-13. Carmel coach Ginger Britton was pleased with the progress of the ‘Hounds, noting that this Carmel team was a “very green team.”
“We’ve made a lot of adjustments and we’ve come a long way both defensively and offensively, and I think our pitching staff has done a really great job of learning on the fly with three pitchers that had no varsity experience before this year,” said Britton. “And I think offensively we did a really nice job starting out strong and being able to maintain that through the entire season,” and then into the post-season.
Noblesville is 24-5 and will play at the field of the Sectional 7 winner Tuesday for the regional championship. Kokomo and Harrison will play each other tonight at Logansport for that sectional title.
NOBLESVILLE 11, CARMEL 7
Carmel AB R H RBI
Ella Ohrvall 5 1 2 1
Kylie Cunningham 3 0 1 1
Megan Nichols 3 1 1 1
Sophie Esposito 3 0 1 0
Caroline Roop 4 2 2 2
Audrey Hussain 4 1 1 2
Hope McDonald 4 0 1 0
Ella Greenawald 4 0 1 0
Lily Sullivan 3 2 2 0
Paxton Law 0 0 0 0
Totals 33 7 12 7
HR: Hussain, Roop. 2B: Ohrvall, Sullivan. SAC: Cunningham.
Carmel pitching IP R ER H
Maddie Stacy 4.1 6 5 7
Emmy Brown 0.2 3 0 3
Law 1.0 2 0 0
Strikeouts: Stacy 1. Walks: Stacy 1.
Noblesville AB R H RBI
Reis Sjoholm 4 1 1 0
Abby Harvey 4 1 1 0
Ella White 4 1 0 0
Cameron Grayson 4 2 2 5
Lauren DeRolf 4 2 1 1
Gabby Fowler 3 0 1 1
Scout Duplaga 3 0 0 0
Taylor Thompson 1 1 1 2
Rylie Newcomer 1 0 1 0
Erin Clark 1 0 0 0
Lydia Nelson-Mercer 0 1 0 0
Kinsey Pfeiffer 1 0 0 0
Myah Stuckey 3 1 2 0
Kira Thomas 0 1 0 0
Totals 33 11 10 9
HR: Grayson 2, Thompson. 2B: Fowler. SB: Thomas 2, Stuckey, White. HBP: Fowler.
NHS pitching IP R ER H
Grayson 7 7 7 12
Strikeouts: Grayson 1. Walks: Grayson 3.
Score by Innings
Carmel 201 121 0 – 7 12 5
Noblesville 010 172 x – 11 10 1