Coming off of a 17-run outburst against Mississinewa in the Consolation game of the Noblesville Classic just two days prior, head coach Justin Keever and staff was hoping that trend would continue as they entered their final week of Hoosier Crossroads Conference play before hosting the Class 4A Sectional 8 tournament at Dunker Field.
It would be a busy week for the Millers, as they would play four games in five days to put a nice cap on the regular season.
Splitting a series with Westfield and sweeping the final two games that Noblesville would play as an HCC foe to the Harrison Raiders was a great way to close out an outstanding regular season.
Following last Friday's road game at Harrison, Noblesville found itself sitting atop the Hoosier Crossroads Conference standings as the 2014 outright conference champions. That's a pretty good way to take a 3-game winning streak and winners of 4 out of their last 5 into sectional play.
Westfield 9, 4A #7 Noblesville 2 (Monday, May 19 at The Dunk)
Westfield 2 0 4 1 2 0 0 - 9 11 3
Noblesville 0 0 0 0 0 2 0 - 2 7 2
Shamrock starting pitcher Jake Dietz struck out 8 through five innings, including ending his night on the mound by fanning the final six Millers that he faced. Dietz had complete control of Noblesville's bats, to say the least, giving up just four total hits and stranding six.
Westfield couldn't get enough of Garrett Christman's pitching in his 2.1 innings. GC got roughed up for 6 runs on 7 hits.
It just wasn't Noblesville's night and they wouldn't fall to the visiting Shamrocks, 9-2.
Cole McCrary showed hit clout at the plate, going 3-5, driving in four of the nine Westfield runs and scoring a pair.
Dietz helped out his win on the hill with a 2-3 performance and 2 RBIs.
Despite pelting 7 hits as a team, Noblesville could only just manage two runs in defeat. Vinny Essig and Zack St. Pierre accounted for four of the seven Millers knocks.
4A #7 Noblesville 3, Westfield 2 (Tuesday, May 20 - at Westfield)
Noblesville 0 0 0 3 0 0 0 - 3 9 0
Westfield 0 0 1 1 0 0 0 - 2 5 2
After losing to Hamilton Heights 8-7 and whipping Mississinewa in the Noblesville Classic on May 17, the Millers had now lost two of three for only the second time all season.
In Game 2 of the series, it was all about which team could outsmart the other. Fortunately, it was the Millers that looked brilliant in grabbing this conference road battle.
Westfield grabbed a 1-0 lead in the bottom of the 3rd, but couldn't hang onto it for long at all.
Noblesville jumped ahead with a three-run top of the 4th for a 3-1 lead that they wouldn't give back to the Shamrocks.
The hosts crossed the plate one more time in their turn at bat in the last of the 4th, but were stymied by Miller pitching the rest of the way.
With zeros on the board in the 5th through 7th innings for both teams, Noblesville escaped with a 3-2 win.
Trevor Salmon tossed a topsy-turvy 4.1 innings for his sixth win of the season to give him a season total of 6-2. The University of Southern Indiana signee scattered 4 hits, allowed two earned runs, walked 5 and K'd another 5.
Future Marian University Knight Zack St. Pierre finished the final 2.2 on the hill, giving up just one hit, walked 2 and striking out 4.
Garrett Christman led the Millers' hitting attack with a 3-for-4 stat line. Brian McLean (2) and St. Pierre (2) also joined GC with multiple hits to combine for 7 of the 9 Noblesville hits.
4A #7 Noblesville 4, Harrison 3 (Senior Night) - (Thursday, May 22 at The Dunk)
Harrison 0 1 0 2 0 0 0 - 3 5 0
Noblesville 2 0 1 0 0 1 x - 4 6 2
Harrison head coach Pat Lowrey has brough his Raiders a long way since taking over the reigns. They were in the middle of the pack for the majority of the HCC season and they wanted to do everything possible to keep Noblesville from winning the conference championship in outright fashion.
It was Senior Night for an outstanding group of 10 seniors and 2 managers that have put in a lot of time and energy into the Miller baseball program.
Noblesville got its bats going early in the bottom of the 1st. Brian McLean stroked a long single to right center and stole second. McLean was immediately driven home on a Garrett Christman double on one hop to the right center wall for a 1-0 lead. Vinny Essig plated GC with an RBI-single to shallow right center and it was 2-0 Millers.
Harrison joined in on the scoring in the 2nd with pitcher Rhett Baxter leading things off with a single into right center. Baxter's pinch runner Jacob Chase made it around to score when the DH Evan Sturgeon singled to cut Noblesville's lead to 2-1.
The Millers tacked on another in the 3rd and it happened with two outs. Garrett Christman smacked another double to right center. Essig manufactured another run with a triple to the right center wall (on the fly), scoring Christman with ease from second and Noblesville widened the gap a little at 3-1 through three.
Things got a little tricky in the Harrison half of the 4th. Baxter reached on an error to lead the inning off. Sturgeon again notched an RBI, this time via a sacrifice fly to right scoring Baxter to narrow the score to 3-2. Jeep Morehouse singled to shallow right and made his way over to third on a single by Nick Morris. The Raiders now had runners at the corners with two down.
Dax McLochlin was extremely focused while he pitched and didn't fully see Morehouse at third. Morehouse took it upon himself to steal home with a 2-1 count on Matthew Roop. That tied the game up 3-3.
Cory Conway came on to relieve Dax and was dialed in from the moment he stepped onto the rubber. The sophomore lefty only gave up one hit and another reached by an error, but otherwise pitched a stellar 3 innings out of the Miller bullpen.
Heading into the bottom of the 6th, there was a vibe and up in the press box, we knew something was going to happen as the Millers came to bat.
Sure enough, Vinny Essig proved to be that vibe we were getting. With a 3-2 count, Essig smoked his 6th home run of the season right over the left field fence and Noblesville regained the lead at 4-3, which would turn out to be the final score.
This win gave Noblesville at least a share of the HCC championship.
Essig and Garrett Christman accounted for 5 of Noblesville's 6 hits and all four RBIs.
Essig was a double shy of hitting for the cycle with a single, triple and solo home run that proved to be the game-winner.
McLochlin (5) and Conway (4) were a great pitching combo, striking out 9 Raiders and allowing just 5 hits.
4A #7 Noblesville 5, Harrison 3 - (Friday, May 23 at Harrison)
Millers 0 1 0 2 1 1 0 - 5 7 3
Raiders 0 0 2 0 0 0 1 - 3 6 3
There was only one thing on the mind of the Millers and that was sweeping Harrison to win the HCC championship outright and nothing beyond that. Drawing the bye in the Class 4A Sectional 8 tournament at Dunker Field was more than likely a close second.
Garrett Christman got the start on the hill and pitched a superb game for 6.2 innings to secure the win. Trevor Salmon came in to get the save, throwing just 1/3 of an inning.
Salmon was also big at the plate as the DH to start, going 2-for-3 and driving in a pair of runs. Connor Christman was 2-for-2 with an RBI. Andrew Wilson, Essig and St. Pierre added a hit each for the total of 7.
It would be the final time that Noblesville and Harrison get together on the diamond as Hoosier Crossroads Conference opponents, as Harrison (along with McCutcheon and Lafayette Jeff) will be changing conferences and become a member of the North Central Conference.
The Millers became outright champions of the Hoosier Crossroads Conference with the 5-3 win at Harrison. Going into the final regular season game, Noblesville and McCutcheon were neck-and-neck at the top.
Thursday night just as the Millers were tied at home with Harrison, it came across the Twitter feed that Hamilton Southeastern had upset McCutcheon 4-1, which gave NHS at least a share of the title.
Becoming outright champions of the toughest conference in the state of Indiana became a reality. Sweeping Harrison gave the Millers the title they have longed for. Noblesville finished the regular season with a 22-8 overall record and a 14-4 HCC mark.
Noblesville (22-8) now faces HCC rival Fishers (21-9) in the first semifinal of the 4A Sectional 8 tournament at Dunker Field in Noblesville on Monday, June 2 at 11 a.m.
Hamilton Southeastern (12-16) and Westfield (18-11) meet up in the second semifinal, following approximately 45 minutes after the conclusion of the Noblesville-Fishers matchup.
The Class 4A Sectional 8 championship game will be Monday night at 7:30.
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