By RICHIE HALL
FISHERS – Jack Brown and Carson Dunn had everyone doing a triple take on Thursday.
The two Fishers baseball players saw their team in a 2-2 tie with Noblesville in the bottom of the fifth inning. With one out, Dunn smacked a triple into center field. Seconds later, Brown put a triple in right field. The Tigers had the go-ahead run, and would go on to win 4-2 over the Millers in a Hoosier Crossroads Conference game at Fishers.
The Tigers never trailed in the game, with Dunn and Brown each scoring a run for Fishers in the first inning. Dunn led off with a triple, then Brown drew a walk. After absorbing two outs, Caulin Brown hit a double into center field, sending in both runners.
“Whenever I hit a ball to the fence, I’m always thinking three and I always try to stretch it out to give us an extra bag,” said Dunn. The Tigers played Zionsville last week, and split the series. Both games ended with dramatic walkoffs, so Dunn was happy to get a first win in this series.
“We had a solid first game last week,” said Dunn. “Faced a pretty good arm.” The Eagles wound up winning that game – “It was a great game and we were right there the whole time,” said Dunn. “I’m just glad to get up on top early this week and start the weekend off great.”
Noblesville got the first run back in the top of the third inning, also with two outs. Hunter Corbett lined a single into right field, then was brought home by a double from Trevor Corbett. The Millers tied the game in the fourth inning after Aiden Ramsey scored on a wild pitch.
“We had a scouting report on (Noblesville pitcher Nolan) Decker, who is really, really good,” said Tigers coach Matthew Cherry. “I thought we executed really well in the first and got the two runs, and then we kind of went away from the approach a little bit and he started carving us up. He pitched really well. And so we challenged them a little bit going into that inning.”
And it worked. Cherry said Dunn’s triple helped “get us going and get some energy,” then Brown stepped in and gave the Tigers back-to-back triples.
After the Tigers got their run in the fifth inning, they led for the remainder of the game. Fishers added another run in the sixth inning when Ben Hammond doubled in Noah McPeek, who got on base with a two-out single.
“They played really well,” said Millers coach Justin Keever. “They had some big hits with two outs against us.”
Noblesville fought to the end, with Jack Shade hitting a triple in the top of the seventh with one out. But Jack Brown finished the game strong on the mound, with two strikeouts. Brown put together a splendid complete game, tossing seven strikeouts and allowing only two hits and one walk.
Brown said he “made adjustments throughout the game. I felt like I was very strong at the end, which is what’s important to me. Tight situation there and I got us out of it. It’s my fourth appearance of the year and I saw some improvements that I wanted to make, and I’m ready to go for next week.”
Dunn and McPeek both had two hits for the Tigers, while Trevor Corbett had two hits for Noblesville. Nolan Decker went five innings for the Millers on the mound, with 12 strikeouts.
Fishers is 2-1 in HCC play and 6-4 overall, while Noblesville is 1-2 in conference play and 7-2 overall. Both teams will play again tonight to finish the HCC series, with first pitch at 7 p.m. at the Millers’ Don Dunker Field.
FISHERS 4, NOBLESVILLE 2
Noblesville AB R H RBI
Trevor Corbett 3 0 2 1
Aiden Reynolds 3 0 1 0
Bryce Riggs 3 0 0 0
Aiden Ramsey 3 1 0 0
Nolan Decker 2 0 0 0
Jack Shade 3 0 1 0
Jacob Edwards 3 0 0 0
Josh Peek 3 0 0 0
Hunter Corbett 2 1 1 0
Blake Widget 0 0 0 0
Totals 25 2 5 1
3B: Shade. 2B: Corbett.
NHS pitching IP R ER H
Decker 5 3 3 7
Quinton Black 1 1 1 2
Strikeouts: Decker 12, Black 1. Walks: Decker 1.
Fishers AB R H RBI
Carson Dunn 3 2 2 0
Jack Brown 2 1 1 1
Gavin Clayton 3 0 1 0
Quinn Seefeldt 3 0 0 0
Caulin Brown 2 0 1 2
Ethan Gardner 1 0 0 0
Huston Dunn 3 0 1 0
Noah McPeek 3 1 2 0
Ben Hammond 3 0 1 1
Gavin Kuzniewski 3 0 0 0
Evan Doran 0 0 0 0
Totals 26 4 9 4
3B: C. Dunn 2, J. Brown. 2B: C. Brown, Hammond. SB: McPeek.
Fishers pitching AB R H RBI
Brown 7 2 2 5
Strikeouts: J. Brown 7. Walks: J. Brown 1.
Score by innings
Noblesville 001 100 0 – 2 5 0
Fishers 200 011 x – 4 9 1