Pitching prevails as Fishers sweeps Noblesville in HCC play

By CRAIG ADKINS

For The Reporter

NOBLESVILLE – The weather had finally become “baseball weather,” and that brought on gusty winds for a typical Indiana spring Friday night. The Fishers Tigers and Noblesville Millers knew that offense could be at a premium.

The two teams combined for just seven hits, but Fishers found the way to push to the two-game Hoosier Crossroads Conference series sweep, defeating Noblesville on the road, 2-1.

Tiger leadoff hitter Deagan Repp took the first pitch of the game from Beckett Doane to deep right center for a double. Designated hitter Luke Cherry drove Repp in for the first score on a sacrifice fly to left to give Fishers an early 1-0 lead.

“To lead off the game and attack the first pitch, with Deagan Repp hitting a double to start the game, then we manufactured a run there with a sac fly from Luke Cherry, it was awesome,” said Fishers head coach Matthew Cherry.

Normally, the matchup between Noblesville and Fishers stays intense throughout and this one didn’t shy away from that.

“We knew coming into the series with their two guys, (Joe) Glander and Doane, that it was going to be a low-scoring game and we had to scratch across any run that we could. That’s why we’re always trying to steal and run and get into scoring position, because we knew we weren’t going to get very many hits, so we needed to be in the right spot when we did,” continued Cherry.

Hayden Werner (2-0) pitched a solid game for No. 3 Fishers. The junior fanned nine Miller hitters throughout his seven innings. During the first six innings, Werner gave up just one hit and walked two.

Doane, the junior lefty, got a little loose, hitting four different Fishers hitters in the first five frames. The Mississippi State commit finished with 11 strikeouts before giving way to sophomore Eli Hall for the final two innings.

“I thought the pitchers competed on the mound. Their guy threw really well and kept us off balance. Beckett and Eli competed,” said Noblesville head coach Justin Keever. “Credit to Fishers. They put pressure on us both nights. We’re not playing good ball. We’ve got to get healthy. We’re falling short right now and the margin of error is pretty thin for us right now.”

The Tigers grabbed an insurance run in the top of the seventh. Pinch hitter Collin Hebert led off drilling a single up the middle. Carter Strole re-entered to run. Stroke stole second and would get over to third when pinch hitter Sean Frey bunted a base hit right past third baseman Chris Martz.

“The extra run at the end with Collin Hebert, he’s been doing that all year. Just pinch-hitting and making the most of his opportunities and battling with two strikes to get the leadoff hit,” Cherry said. “Then we got the bunt to move the runners and then Zander attacked the first-pitch curveball to score that last run.”

Zander Carnahan sent a double to center to score Strole for a 2-0 lead.

Werner stayed out on the mound to face Noblesville in the bottom of the seventh for the complete game.

Tanner Miller led off with a single up the middle. Two straight strikeouts of Aiden Reynolds and Glander put the Millers in a hole.

They climbed out of it with Aiden Ramsey and pinch-hitter Jalen Stidham getting hit by pitches consecutively to load the bases. Martz walked to send Miller home to cut it to 2-1. Trevor Corbett came up with two down. Corbett got under a 1-1 pitch and flew out to center to end the game.

Noblesville (5-7, 1-3 HCC) gets back at it at 1 p.m. today at home against the University Trailblazers (4-5).

Fishers (9-1, 4-0 HCC) is off to an undefeated start early in conference action.

“We’ve got a long way to go,” stated Cherry. “We could easily drop the next four in the league that we’re playing. We could’ve easily dropped these two. It’s the game of baseball. It could quickly turn. We’ve got to regroup and be ready to go again next week, keep battling.”

The Tigers also have a quick turnaround. Fishers will face Greenfield-Central (4-3) in a 10 a.m. game at Kokomo’s Championship Park.