The REPORTER
The Fishers baseball team began its Hoosier Crossroads Conference series with Westfield Thursday by scoring a 6-3 victory on its home field.
The Shamrocks got the first run in the top of the first inning; Caden Lindsey was hit by a pitch, moved to third base by Drew Law’s double, then got home on Ethan Colling’s RBI groundout. The Tigers struck back with two runs in the bottom of the first. Evan Doran doubled in Deagan Repp for the first run, then Trevor Hall batted Owen Lukac home to give Fishers a 2-1 lead.
Westfield tied the game in the top of the second after Johnny Ewing scored on Logan Hoffman’s RBI groundout. But Huston Dunn answered for the Tigers, as his base hit scored Ethan Gardner. Fishers went up 3-2 and would not trail again.
Ben Hammond blasted a left field home run in the fifth inning, also scoring Lukac and putting the Tigers ahead 5-2. Jack Brown completed the Fishers scoring with an RBI single in the sixth inning to bring Gavin Kuzniewski home. The Rocks added a seventh-inning run when Nick Fero singled Jake Russell home.
Repp, Dunn, Hammond and Hall each had two hits for the Tigers. Hammond hit a fourth-inning triple and Hall hit a fifth-inning double. Brown pitched six and two-thirds innings for the win, striking out nine. Hammond got the save, pitching a strikeout to end the game. Westfield’s Ty Anderson pitched four strikeouts in five innings.
Fishers is 2-3 in the conference and 7-6 overall, while the Shamrocks are 4-1 in HCC play and 8-3 overall. The series finishes tonight at Westfield.
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A Thursday night trip to Franklin Township kept the week going and got the Millers’ bats even hotter. Noblesville had everything going right en route to winning the first game of its HCC series with Franklin Central in six innings, 11-0.
Trevor Corbett patiently led off with a walk, followed by an Aiden Reynolds single to left. Nolan Decker lined a hit to center to score Corbett. Aiden Ramsey drove in Reynolds on a ground ball for a 2-0 score. McCoy Fulk helped finish the scoring in the first, reaching on a passed ball for the third strike that got Decker home for an early 3-0 lead.
Sam Deno started off the second with a bang, sending a double to left. Brady Bishop singled to get Deno to third. Deno scored on a fielder’s choice by Corbett for 4-0. Ramsey would be hit by a pitch with the bases loaded, scoring Corbett for a 5-0 count.
The Millers kept pouring it on offensively in the top of the fourth. Reynolds and Decker walked with a Jacob Baker single sandwiched in between to load the bags. Ramsey then launched a grand slam to left to clear the bases, giving Noblesville a 9-0 cushion.
Two more runs crossed home in the top of the sixth to cement the shutout in six innings, 11-0 over the host Flashes. Fulk’s RBI single and Blake Widget’s sacrifice fly plated the final two runs for the dominant road win.
Sophomore Beckett Doane shined on the mound once again. The southpaw worked six innings, striking out seven, while giving up just four hits and walking two.
Ramsey had quite the night at the plate, going 2-for-3 with six RBIs, including the grand slam. Decker joined him with a 2-of-3 night, scoring three runs. Corbett, Reynolds and Ramsey each scored two runs for the Millers.
Noblesville (9-2, 3-0 HCC) hosts Franklin Central (5-5, 1-4 HCC) in the series finale at Dunker Field tonight with a 6:30 p.m. first pitch.
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University cruised to victory in its Pioneer Conference North opener Thursday, beating Liberty Christian 13-1 in five innings at RoundTripper Academy.
The Lions scored a run in the top of the second inning, but it was all Trailblazers after that, as they put up 10 runs in the bottom of the second. Charlie Ranek got University on the board with a three-run double, then Jasper Owens batted Ranke home. Jimmy Caldwell cracked a three-run triple, then Owen Schellhase hit an RBI triple. Beckett Suh added a two-run single in the third inning, after Ryan Castetter’s RBI double.
Suh also had a three-RBI night. Hunter Canning pitched five strikeouts in two innings for the win.
The Blazers are 5-4-1 and host the Trailblazer Classic on Saturday.
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After the first game’s low-scoring affair, both the Hamilton Southeastern and Avon baseball teams were motivated to put runs on the board for the Hoosier Crossroads Conference series finale.
Unfortunately for the Royals, the host Orioles had twice as many hits and runs, salvaging a split in the conference series with an 8-4 win Thursday night.
Avon struck first with three in the bottom of the first. A pair of singles, two walks and one getting hit by a pitch, got HSE in a 3-0 hole immediately.
Nolan Colbert led off the top of the third with a base hit to right. Colbert would score on a Maddux Bach sacrifice fly. The Royals added another run to cut it to 3-2 when Kam Seitz reached on an error, sending Evan Haas.
The Orioles used the next two innings to push away, scoring one in the third and four more in the home half of the fourth that made it 8-2.
The Royals had one last-ditch effort in the top of the seventh, but only managed to get two across for the final score of 8-4.
Josh Lesniewski (3-2) took the loss, giving up four runs (three earned) in his three innings on the mound.
HSE had just three hits by Seitz, Colbert and Bach and were struck out nine times, eight by starter Kade Tislow.
Hamilton Southeastern (6-6, 3-3 HCC) gets back to it at home on Saturday with a non-conference battle with Lapel (6-2) at 11 a.m.