It will be pretty different, when it comes to scheduling, starting this Fall sports season when Noblesville no longer plays Lafayette Jeff, McCutcheon and Harrison (West Lafayette) as a part of their Hoosier Crossroads Conference slate. The three Lafayette area schools have decided to split away from the HCC and join Noblesville's former conference, the North Central Conference.
As the years have gone by, all three schools have become conference rivals of the Millers and it will indeed be odd not having them as opponents in the conference. Some sports will still be able to fit the Bronchos, Mavericks and Raiders into their seasons, but others will be saying goodbye to competitions with these longtime HCC foes.
Noblesville wanted to give the Bronchos a nice parting gift as they leave HCC baseball play. The Millers put together a nice sweep of Lafayette Jeff in pretty convincing fashion on Tuesday and Thursday by a combined 21-3 count.
4A #8 Noblesville 11, Lafayette Jeff 1 (5 inn.) - (Tues. 4/29 at Loeb Stadium, Lafayette)
Millers 5 1 5 0 0 - 11 12 0
Bronchos 0 0 0 1 0 - 1 4 2
The Millers have become "road warriors" as of late and it couldn't come at a better time. Noblesville dropped its first couple of road games at St. Xavier, Kentucky (4-2) and at Fishers (5-1) and since has posted three HCC wins in a row at Brownsburg (3-2), Zionsville (4-3) and Lafayette Jeff (11-1).
The latter was this past Tuesday in Noblesville's last trip to the Bronchos' Loeb Stadium as Lafayette Jeff will be leaving the HCC for the North Central Conference (above).
NHS came out in control from the get-go, putting a five-spot on the board.
Andrew Wilson showed why he's been Justin Keever's leadoff hitter all year long, singling to shortstop Alex Albrecht. Brian McLean doubled on a liner to center, sending Wilson to third. After Garrett Christman lined out to short, Dax McLochlin reached on an error at third, allowing Wilson to score the first run.
Lafayette Jeff only committed two errors, but both happened in the top of the first, and came at third. The second came with Vinny Essig up, scoring McLean and getting Dax to second and then to third on the error itself.
Pitcher Zack St. Pierre singled to right, sending McLochlin home, leading the way for Vinny as he and Dax made it 4-0.
Connor Christman singled to left on an 0-2 pitch to drive in St. Pierre to give Zack a solid 5-0 lead before the Millers even took the field.
St. Pierre made quick work of the Bronchos in the bottom of the first, forcing two groundouts and a strikeout on a dropped third strike.
Wilson and McLean led off the 2nd with back-to-back singles. Wilson was driven home by Garrett Christman's sacrifice fly for a 6-0 Noblesville advantage.
The Miller offense was looking to exhaust the Lafayette Jeff defense and leave Lafayette in less than 7 innings. That plan worked and the Millers poured it on again in the top of the 3rd.
DH Trevor Salmon walked to start the 3rd and Connor Christman hit an infield single, getting Salmon to second and two Millers aboard. Easton Brock singled to short and that loaded the bases full of Millers.
Andrew Wilson soon after doubled to left on a line drive, scoring Salmon and Christman for an 8-0 lead and advancing Brock to third.
McLean singled to score Brock to make it 9-0 and Wilson was now at 3rd with no outs. Garrett Christman drove in his second run of the night (Wilson), when he singled to right on a rope, advancing McLean to second.
McLochlin hit a sacrifice fly to Austin Albrecht in center to get McLean home and Noblesville was making a statement with an 11-0 lead through three innings.
Tyler Gamble came out of the Miller bullpen to pitch 1.1 innings and Lafayette Jeff managed to get three hits off of the senior reliever. The Bronchos also were able to scrap one run home in the 4th, which didn't matter once Noblesville sealed this victory in 5 innings, 11-1.
McLean had a 3-for-4 night at the dish, scoring two runs and driving in another. St. Pierre helped his own cause at the plate, hitting 1-of-3 with a run and two RBI's while also picking up the win on the mound.
Wilson filled up his line in the box score, hitting in all three of his at-bats, scoring three times and driving in a pair of runs.
The Christman brothers (Garrett and Connor) combined for a 3-for-4 day at the plate, driving in three runs, while Dax McLochlin also drove in a run.
With St. Pierre nabbing the win, he only gave up one hit and a walk, while striking out 4 in 3 innings.
4A #8 Noblesville 10, Lafayette Jeff 2 - (Thursday, May 1 at The Dunk)
Bronchos 1 0 0 0 0 0 1 - 2 3 0
Millers 0 2 0 5 3 0 X - 10 10 1
Lafayette Jeff wasn't too keen about getting run-ruled in the home ballpark on Tuesday night, so it was assumed that they would be aiming to get at Noblesville right away. That's exactly what happened.
Alex Albrecht got Jeff started with walking on the first five pitches Trevor Salmon threw to him. Albrecht took off for second on Justin Walker's sacrifice bunt for the first out. Alex's brother Austin Albrecht laced an RBI-single to shallow center, scoring the younger brother Alex for a 1-0 Lafayette Jeff lead.
Noblesville got its scoring started in the second. Vinny Essig drilled a one-hop triple to the wall in deep right center to help get the Miller faithful up and out of their seats on a chili night at Dunker Field.
St. Pierre was plunked with a 2-1 pitch from freshman starter Chandler Ferguson for runners at the corners. Salmon singled to drive in Essig to tie things at 1-1. Next up, Connor Christman hit into a fielder's choice to that scored St. Pierre. That would put the Millers up for good and they wouldn't look back.
Over the next three innings, Salmon got himself into a mental groove with catcher Bret Rundle. Just the 3rd through 5th, Trevor struck out 5, walked two and allowed just one hit over that time and two hits overall in his 5 innings.
The Millers were able to tack on more runs in the bottom of the 4th and do it with ease on the frosh Broncho hurler.
McLochlin was hit by a 1-2 pitch. Essig's single moved Dax over to third and he easily scored on St. Pierre's RBI-single to left.
Essig was now at third and St. Pierre at 2nd. Salmon hit into a fielder's choice to load the bags. Connor Christman walked, which let Essig waltz home and it was 4-1.
Bases were still juiced. Opportunity knocked and Bret Rundle answered the call. Rundle smacked a double that hit the bottom of the wall, clearing the bases and the senior catcher ended up at 2nd base with a 3-run double. And just like that, it was 7-1 after four innings.
The Noblesville bats weren't even close to being done for the night. We play until the game is over, bottom line.
Batting around in the 4th, Dax led off the 5th, but unfortunately fanned. Then, Vinny Essig took a 1-0 fastball up and over the left field fence for his 3rd home run of the season and that solo dinger extended the NHS lead to 8-1.
St. Pierre walked and then moved to second on a wild pitch. Connor drove in his third run of the game with a double to center to send St. Pierre home for a 9-1 cushion.
Rundle was back up in the 5th and hungry for more at the plate. Singling to left, Christman scored from second and it was a 10-1 Miller lead.
The Bronchos were able to scrounge up another run in the 6th, but things got a little chippy to start the top of the 6th.
Austin Albrecht was at the plate with a 1-1 count and stepped back out of the batter's box following a called strike. He had a "choice word" for the plate umpire and was immediately ejected. Smith took over to pinch-hit the remainder of the at-bat and walked. Ethan Smith reached on an error by Essig at second.
Two consecutive K's by Miller reliever Cory Conway and we had two quick outs and runners at first and second. Alec Beaver hit an infield single to load the bases, which is something that Miller D hasn't seen recently. Jared Overman walked to drive in Jeff's second run, which would prove to be the final score in this game, Noblesville winning in dominant fashion, 10-2.
Uncharacteristic of hitters 1-4 in the Noblesville lineup, Wilson, McLean, Garrett Christman and McLochlin went just 1-14 with a run score.
The 5 through 9 hitters brought the wood in Game 2 of the series sweep of Lafayette Jeff. That quintet of Essig. St. P, Salmon, Connor Christman and Rundle were together 9-for-12 and accounted for all 10 RBI's, along with 9 of the 10 Miller runs.
It seems like it honestly doesn't matter one bit which players produce and when, it's a matter that they produce and in the end, come out victorious. These are the marks of a great team. They are a selfless bunch of 15-18 year-olds that love playing baseball The Miller Way.
The series sweep over Lafayette Jeff drops the Bronchos to 7-8 (1-7 HCC) and improves Noblesville to 13-4 overall and 7-1 in the Hoosier Crossroads Conference and currently in the driver's seat.
Tonight, the Millers host the Frankfort Hot Dogs. First pitch will be at 7 p.m.
I'd like to thank all of you who click on the link and read the blogs I write. If you like what you're reading and you don't yet follow me on Twitter, feel free to do so where you can find me at @MillerVoiceNDCB.
Thank you again and GO MILLERS!
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