Getting to The Dunk around 10am on Saturday for the 4th Annual Miller Invitational, I knew we would be settling in for great and possibly long day of high school baseball. I was right. Game 1 between Brebeuf Jesuit and Noblesville didn't get started until 11:11 a.m. Before we knew it, the Miller coaching staff, myself and athletic director Mike Hasch were trying to predict when we would actually get the Championship game started later on that night. First pitch for the Miller Invitational Championship was originally slated for approximately 6:30. Dax McLochlin tossed the first pitch in the top of the 1st at 9:59 p.m.
Two hours and one minute later at 12 midnight, the Noblesville Millers captured their own one-day affair, 12-2 over the Homestead Spartans.
Game 1: 4A #7 Noblesville 12, 3A #10 Brebeuf Jesuit 2 (6 innings)
Brebeuf Jesuit 0 0 1 0 0 1 - 2 4 2
Noblesville 4 1 3 1 1 2 - 12 16 0
Similar to Trevor Salmon's start on the mound against New Castle on Monday, it took him the first few hitters to get himself back into a mental groove. Allowing two Braves aboard in the first three hitters, sandwiched between those was Clay Farren grounding out to Salmon at the mound. To end the first and ignite the Miller bench is approval, Trevor struck out Eric Petruzzi (swinging) and Marshall Farren (looking).
Noblesville's offense couldn't wait to dig into the batter's box and get their bats going. Andrew Wilson led off with a double. Brian McLean singled and advanced to second soon after, scoring Wilson. McLean advanced to third on Garrett Christman's single to shallow right center. Dax McLochlin reached on a fielder's choice to third, which forced out GC at 2nd for the first out. Zach St. Pierre got on base with a single to get Dax into scoring position.
Two pitches later, sophomore Connor Christman singled on the ground to left to plate McLochlin. The Millers finished their first inning scoring when Trevor Salmon helped his own cause and drove in St. Pierre with a single over the head of SS Nick Chambers.
And just like that, Noblesville was up 4-0 on six hits.
The Millers tacked on another to make it 5-0 when Andrew Wilson singled and crossed home plate on Dax McLochlin's base-reaching hit to short, but was ruled an error by Chambers.
Brebeuf got on the board in the third when Nick Chambers walked and Clay Farren followed by getting hit by a Salmon pitch. The two moved up the base paths with a double steal while Ben Powell was up. Petruzzi grounded out to third and Chambers trotted home to cut Noblesville's lead to 5-1.
The home standing Millers kept the scoring going in the bottom of the third. Trevor Salmon notched his second of three hits, taking a pitch into center to leadoff. Matt Swearingen would pinch run for him once again, scoring on a sacrifice fly by Bret Rundle.
Wilson walked and McLean doubled to right center to score Andrew from first. The elder Christman (Garrett) reached on an error by second baseman Jake Scott and that allowed B-Mc to score from second to give Noblesville a commanding 8-1 advantage.
Salmon kept his hitting going in his next at-bat in the 4th with one out. Trevor doubled down the right field line. "Speedy" Swearingen was his pinch runner once again. Little #7 stole second, managed his way to third on a passed ball and eventually found his way home on Bret Rundle's RBI-double for a 9-1 Miller cushion.
Run #10 was plated in the 5th when Zach St. Pierre belted a solo home run over the right field wall. The game was almost won on that at-bat, but there was something that happened with Dax on the base path. Dax had initially doubled to the wall in deep left center with one out.
The junior first baseman got a little bit overzealous and tried to steal third, but was gunned down by Braves' catcher Michael Hogan for the second out. Though he had no idea, if Dax would have stayed put at second, St. Pierre's HR would have been a two-run shot and tabbed as the game winner. No worries for Mr. McLochlin though.
Sophomore reliever Cory Conway took to the hill in the 6th. Brebeuf RF Ben Powell welcomed Conway to the 2014 season with a towering leadoff solo home run over the left field wall. That could only cut it to 10-2 as NHS came up in the bottom of the 6th.
Noblesville's offense knew what it had to do to win this game in six. DH Austin Shirley (walked) and catcher Bret Rundle (hit by a pitch) both scored in the bottom of the sixth on a Wilson single and McLochlin's fielder's choice. Millers 12, Brebeuf 2.
Game 2: Homestead 9, Crown Point 8 (9 innings)
Crown Point 0 1 0 3 2 0 1 0 1 - 8 13 1
Homestead 0 0 0 0 7 0 0 0 2 - 9 12 1
Rather than losing you all with how this game unfolded, inning by inning. There are some key points that are more important than the actual play-by-play happenings.
Thayne Bukowski did highlight the top of the 4th with a two-run single to left, scoring Austin Thomas and Logan Grapenthien. Bukowski was soon after driven home by Tyler Downing to put the Bulldogs up 4-0.
Crown Point starting pitcher Jake Kocher threw four innings of shutout baseball and was pulled by head coach Steve Strayer. I'm not sure why this happened. Kocher was cruising right along through four with 6 strikeouts, while allowing just three walks and three hits. At that point, the Bulldogs had a 4-0 lead on Homestead and figured to be on their way to the championship to face host Noblesville.
Think again. Real hard.
The visitors from northwest Indiana tallied two more runs in the top of the fifth to extend their lead to 6-0.
Something must have been said in the Homestead huddle in the middle of the 5th inning. The Spartans offense exploded for 7 runs in the 5th! With the way head coach Steve Sotir's squad put 12 in the batter's box that inning, they only needed three hits to do it. Five were walked and one was hit by a pitch. After five full innings, Homestead had climbed into the lead, 7-6.
Fast-forwarding to the 7th. Crown Point was able to tie the score at 7-7 and send it to extra innings. Glenn Hecht leadoff by reaching via an error by SS Drew Lunsford. Three hitters later, relief pitcher Alex Ruiz blooped a single into shallow left.
It was a stalemate in the 8th, so we headed to the 9th.
CP managed to get on the board again with a pinch hitter. Freddy Newman doubles and the just about immediately scored on a single from Bukowski to give the Bulldogs a slight 8-7 edge.
It honestly didn't take much for Homestead to win it in the bottom of the 9th. Luke Landrigan walked and was driven in by Tyler Zimske's double to tie it 8-8. Zimske was the winning run when Ryan Stephens singled to left and Homestead came back again, but this time it was to win 9-8.
Game 3: Consolation - 3A #10 Brebeuf Jesuit 10, Crown Point 7
Crown Point 2 0 2 2 0 1 0 - 7 12 0
Brebeuf Jesuit 0 0 0 0 4 6 X - 10 13 2
Once again, Crown Point jumped out early and tried to sustain a lead and it just couldn't hold it down the stretch.
Two runs each in the 1st, 3rd and 4th innings gave the Bulldogs a 6-0 lead. It was like a carbon copy from Game 2 against Homestead.
Brebeuf needed just two innings of scoring to put away Crown Point and secure the W in the Consolation game. Four runs in the 5th and another six in the 6th gave the Braves a 10-7 victory. Over the final two innings of scoring, Brebeuf Jesuit had 10 hits for those 10 runs and completely stymied the Crown Point pitching staff en route to heading back to West 86th St. splitting their two games in the 2014 Miller Invitational.
Game 4: Championship - 4A #7 Noblesville 12, Homestead 2 (5 innings)
Homestead 2 0 0 0 0 - 2 3 2
Noblesville 3 1 6 1 1 - 12 11 2
Dax McLochlin was on the bump for the Millers in hopes of winning their own Miller Invitational. The junior was a bit shaky in his first varsity start, but once he got his groove, he was on!
Drew Lunsford walked on Dax's first five pitches, but the righty quickly settled himself for a couple of hitters, striking out Luke Landrigan and forcing Brady Sheehan into popping up. Tyler Zimske roped a double to center to score Lunsford. Then, Ryan Stephens poked a single to left and Zimske touched home for an early 2-0 Homestead lead, pumping up the visitors. But, that's honestly all the Millers would allow of the opposition.
Andrew Wilson led off the bottom of one with an infield single just beyond the SS Lunsford, followed by another infield single from Brian McLean. A fly out from Garrett Christman to center and line out to third by Dax, the Millers had two on with two outs. Zach St. Pierre reached on a grounder that was ruled an error by 2B Ben Schwartz, sending Wilson home. Connor Christman fouled a pitch off of his ankle, but fought back and stroked a ball to left. Normally it would have been a routine catch, but Adam Newport had trouble with it and it was ruled an error, but McLean made his way home to tie it at 2-2, nonetheless.
Keep the scoring going? Why not?!
Bret Rundle was hit by a pitch with one out to start the 2nd frame for the Millers. Two batters later, Noblesville would take the lead and never give it back. McLean lined a two-out single up the middle, driving in pinch runner Austin Shirley for a 3-2 Millerball lead.
On the defensive side, Dax was really feeling it on the mound. Through three innings of work, the junior had recorded 3 of his 7 strikeouts, but more importantly, he hadn't allowed any more hits and runs since that two-run first.
In the last of the 3rd, it was obvious that the Millers wanted to get this long day of baseball at The Dunk over and done with.
St. Pierre singled to the left of the second base bag, just out of the shortstop's reach. Connor Christman repeated in the next at-bat. But, while CC was up, St. Pierre showed off his wheels on the base paths by stealing both second and third bases! Christman's single drove home St. P for a 4-2 edge. DH Trevor Salmon doubled, but with Connor favoring his ankle, he was held up at 3rd by third base coach Kevin Fitzgerald.
Runners at the corners with one out. Easton Brock got the start in LF and made his hitting presence known. EB drove in Connor with an infield single to go up 5-2. Rundle walked to load the bases heading to the top of the order.
Then, just like that, Homestead hurler Chris Miller left a pitch right over the middle of the plate and Andrew Wilson took full advantage, crushing it over the left field fence for a grand slam home run!
Busted wide open now, Noblesville extended their margin to 10-2 through three innings. That would all she wrote for Spartan starter Chris Miller. He was relieved by Jack Parisi for the final two innings.
Noblesville scored two more runs to close this game out, but Homestead wasn't going out that easy.
St. Pierre was hit by a pitch to lead off the 4th, but that only motivated him to steal his fourth base of the game! St. P soon made it 11-2 on a fielder's choice by Trevor Salmon.
Dax McLochlin drew a one out walk in the 5th and was subbed for pinch runner extraordinaire Matt Swearingen. Swearingen advanced with a St. Pierre single and was in perfect scoring position to seal it. With a 1-1 count on Connor Christman, Parisi threw an off-speed pitch that landed in the dirty for a passed ball, allowing Swearingen to bolt home and give the Millers a 12-2 win in 5 innings!
The win moved the Noblesville record to 3-1 and dropped Homestead to 1-3.
Co-MVPs for the Miller Invitational...
Andrew Wilson (Noblesville) - 4-for-5, Grand Slam, 4 RBIs, 2B, 3 1Bs, 5 Runs, 4 BBs
Zach St. Pierre (Noblesville) - 4-for-6, solo HR, 5 runs, 4 SBs 2 RBIs, 3 1Bs
Noblesville takes its 3-1 record and 4A #7 ranking to the state of Tennessee for four games on their Spring Break trip, playing in the Diamond Demarini Invitational. Here's how the Miller schedule looks while they're in Tennessee:
Thursday, April 10, 7:30 p.m. - at Hardin Valley Academy (9-1) (3A #7 by the Tennessee Baseball Report and 3A #9 in the latest Tennessee Baseball Coaches Association poll.
Friday, April 11, 2:30 p.m. - vs. Dobyns-Bennett (11-0) (3A #4 by the Tennessee Baseball Report and 3A #2 in the latest Tennessee Baseball Coaches Association poll) at Bearden High School.
Saturday, April 12, 10 a.m. - at Christian Academy of Knoxville (CAK) (10-2) (2A #2 by the Tennessee Baseball Report)
Saturday, April 12, 3 p.m. - vs. Knoxville West (1-7) at Lindsey Neslon Stadium (University of Tennessee), Knoxville, Tennessee.
Keep up to date with the Millers in their travels this week in Tennessee, as well as next week when the Millers return back to Indiana.
Just a reminder of next week's schedule...
Wednesday, April 16, 6 p.m. - at Fishers
Thursday, April 17, 6 p.m. - vs. Fishers (at The Dunk)
Saturday, April 19, 7 p.m. - vs. Carmel (at The Dunk for the White River Rivalry)
As per usual, if you like what you're reading, don't hesitate to follow me on Twitter (@MillerVoiceNDCB)
Thank you for reading and GO MILLERS!
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