By CRAIG ADKINS
For The Reporter
NOBLESVILLE – On a perfect night for baseball, Westfield visited Noblesville last night in a key league matchup. The game couldn’t have spelled the Hoosier Crossroads Conference rivalry any better.
In a low-scoring conference tilt, it would be pitching that helped the ‘Rocks prevail for a 3-2 road win.
After Nolan Decker struck out the side in the top of the first, Westfield figured out how to get to him and they were able to do that immediately in the second.
Matt Drozlek singled to left to start off the second and then Nick Alm walked for two aboard. Drozlek was then picked off second by Decker to Bryce Riggs.
Eli Manbeck dropped down a sacrifice bunt for a force out, moving Alm to second. Ian Wilson and Caden Lindsey both walked, loading the bases.
Brayden Hibler sent a two-run single to left that scored Alm and Wilson for a 2-0 Shamrock lead in the second.
Decker gave up four walks and two hits, along with those two runs in the second just before being pulled.
“Deck uncharacteristically struggled with his control, walked two guys all year and four tonight,” stated Noblesville head coach Justin Keever.
Lucas Stephan relieved Decker with two down in the second, responding well out of the bullpen. The junior righty gave up six hits while also striking out six and was also able to slow down the Westfield bats.
“Big props to Steph (Lucas Stephan) for coming in, hold the fort down. Great outing by him,” said Keever.
Westfield tacked on what wound up being an insurance run in the fourth inning. Caden Lindsey scored on an error by Noblesville catcher Jacob Edwards, giving the Shamrocks a 3-0 advantage.
Throughout his four innings, Jacob Culp showed finesse in his approach of the Miller hitters. He held Noblesville hitless through five and struck out four, but a majority of the outs were pitches hit right to a defender, giving Culp confidence.
“He was just really good. He had command of three pitches and filled it up. I can’t say enough about the job he did. What I’m most proud of is how he responded to that situation, getting the cut at second base to cut down and end the inning, not allowing another at-bat was really big for us,” said Westfield head coach Ryan Bunnell.
Hunter Corbett got the Millers’ first hit with a one-out single over Drozlek’s head at first and into shallow right. Trevor Corbett singled to right to move pinch-runner Blake Widget to second. Then, with two down, Bryce Riggs walked to load the bases.
Trevor Corbett rounds third base to score in the bottom of the sixth inning. (Kent Graham)
Decker hit a two-run single to left, scoring both Widget and Corbett, narrowing the lead to 3-2. The rally could have continued, but Decker was called out at second trying to stretch his single into a double.
“We had a chance there, had a bang-bang play at second base. We got two runs there in the sixth, had runners at second and third, then they called him out at second,” continued Keever.
The Millers had one last chance to stage a comeback. The Shamrocks looked to reliever Andrew Nicholson to shut that down.
Nicholson fanned all three batters he faced in the bottom of the seventh, securing the 3-2 win for Westfield to take a 1-0 series lead.
“We left a lot of runners on base. We’re still a team that is learning not to shoot ourselves in the foot, but we did a lot of good things at the same time,” stated Bunnell.
“We put a lot of pressure on them and I like a lot of the things we did and we’re just going to continue to get better and better,” continued Bunnell.
The Millers (12-4, 5-2 HCC) and Shamrocks (9-5, 4-3 HCC) continue with the second game of series tonight at Westfield with a 6 p.m. first pitch.