When the sectional pairings were announced a couple weeks ago, it wasn't likely that according to most, that Hamilton Southeastern would be in the position they were in and playing for a sectional championship.
Westfield (18-12) posed a threat to the Royals on Monday, but Hamilton Southeastern held on for a 4-3 win over the favored Shamrocks and earned a spot in the championship to play host Noblesville.
The table was set and it was Noblesville and Hamilton Southeastern duking it out for a sectional crown and the right to advance onto the Lafayette Jeff Regional at Loeb Stadium on Saturday in the 2nd game against Homestead.
Noblesville hasn't hoisted the sectional championship trophy since 2010, winning it at home on their familiar grounds of The Dunk, Donald J. Dunker Field. It was well past time for that to change and it was honestly up to this year's 10 member 2014 senior class and many underclassmen to get the job done and move onto regionals at Lafayette Jeff, where they posted an 11-1 win over the Bronchos in 5 innings back on April 29.
4A Sectional 8 Championship: 4A #8 Noblesville 6, Hamilton Southeastern 0
Noblesville 0 0 0 5 0 0 1 - 6 13 0
Hamilton SE 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 - 0 5 2
It's not something they really cared about on their home field, but Noblesville was the guest on the scoreboard for the second straight game. That's just how it goes when you draw the bye. You're the visitor for the duration because you had the luxury of playing one less game.
Andrew Wilson got the Miller bats going right away with a leadoff single to left, but was left on with McLean grounding out and consecutive strikeouts by Hamilton SE starting pitcher Bryan Roberts of Garrett Christman and Vinny Essig.
Trevor Salmon got the nod on the hill and was ready to pitch the Millers to a sectional crown.
Three starting Royals didn't play in the HCC series a couple weeks ago, because of some nagging injuries. One of those was leadoff hitter Tre' Gantt.
Gantt wasted no time in the matchup of southpaw vs. left-handed hitter. The senior center fielder belted the first pitch Salmon threw right down the line and into the right field corner for a leadoff double.
Two pitches later, Matt Gorski hit a quick line drive back to the mound. Trevor made the swiftest move he could, diving for the catch. Then, whipping the ball to shortstop Garrett Christman at second to double off Gantt. Just like that, there were two outs.
Aaron McGee doubled as the next hitter, but was left on with David Herrmann lining out to Essig at second.
It was a pitcher's dual for the next two innings. After that, you could tell that there was a burning desire from the Millers.
Dax McLochlin led off the top of the 4th, taking a 3-1 pitch down the right field line for a double. Two strikeouts in a row to Easton Brock and Connor Christman looked like Noblesville's hands might be tied.
Not so much.
Bret Rundle came up next and took an 0-2 breaking ball up the middle and into center to score Dax for a 1-0 lead and the Miller faithful erupting.
Matt Swearingen came in to pinch run for Rundle. Five pitches later, Swearingen was driven home on an Andrew Wilson two-run home run over the left field wall to make it 3-0. That HR is Wilson's 5th dinger of the season.
Just before Wilson's at-bat, I was telling Craig Lutz and Bob Tremain in the press box that Wilson was due for a home run. It had been quite a while since he had put a ball over the fence.
Brian McLean hit a sharp ground ball to Gorski at 2nd, but he couldn't handle it, allowing B first base via an error. Garrett Christman singled next to get two aboard for the Millers. Vinny Essig made good of the base runners that were on, hitting a two-run single to score McLean and GC for a 5-0 Noblesville advantage after 3 1/2.
Rewind for a minute back to the bottom of the 2nd with the Royals up. Erik DeWael singled, but was left on when catcher Matt Nash struck out swinging.
Starting with Nash, Trevor Salmon retired 12 consecutive Hamilton SE hitters from the bottom of the second until an Aaron McGee single in the bottom of the 6th.
The senior University of Southern Indiana signee was completely dialed in on the Royals' lineup and it appeared there was nothing that would stop him from pitching his team to a victory.
Noblesville couldn't help but put an insurance run up on the scoreboard out in left in the top of the 7th. Zack St. Pierre hit a one out single into center. St. P stole second and Carter Poiry was called for a balk on the mound, getting Zack to 3rd. McLochlin grounded out to short for the second out, but that made it easy for St. Pierre to score and it was 6-0.
Salmon started off the bottom of the 7th and to Keever and Vogt he might have seemed a little rattled, especially with the Hamilton SE crowd rowdy. With one out, Jack Casey hit a single up the middle and Poiry walked, ending Salmon's night on the bump with a six run lead.
Sophomore Cory Conway came on with one out in the 7th and was nothing short of lights out. The crafty left-hander struck out Erik DeWael with a full count for the second out. Noblesville's crowd was now on its feet to cheer on Conway as he faced Matt Nash with two outs. With a 2-2 count, Conway worked the corners and used the corner again to whiff Nash looking to seal the game.
Noblesville emptied their 3rd base line dugout and tackled each other in a celebration dog pile just to the 3rd base side of the mound.
It was Noblesville's first sectional championship since they won it in 2010 at The Dunk.
Trevor Salmon upped his record on the mound to 7-3 on the season. It was probably Trevor's best outing of the season as a starter, only allowing 5 hits, while striking out 4 and walking two.
Wilson had a stellar night at the dish by going 3-4 with a run scored and two RBIs. Vinny Essig had a pair of RBIs and St. Pierre and McLochlin each had a two-hit night.
Hamilton Southeastern finished their up and down 2014 season with a 13-17 record.
Noblesville advances to play in the Lafayette Jeff Regional this Saturday, June 7 at Loeb Stadium in Lafayette.
The first game of the Lafayette Jeff Regional will be at 11 a.m. and will feature Carroll (Allen) (21-9) meeting up with HCC foe McCutcheon (24-8).
The Millers (24-8) gets another shot at the Homestead Spartans (22-9) around 1:30 or approximately 45 minutes after the Carroll-McCutcheon matchup.
Noblesville hosted Homestead in this April's Miller Invitational. The Millers 10-runned the Spartans in the championship game of the Miller Invitational, 12-2 in 5 innings. Since those were Homestead's first two games of the season in early April, the Spartans have gone 21-8 since then for their 22-9 mark.
The Lafayette Jeff Regional championship game will be at 8 p.m. at Loeb Stadium.
*As always, if you like what you're reading, feel free to give me a follow on Twitter, @MillerVoiceNDCB!
I'll see you all at Loeb Stadium in Lafayette on Saturday!
GO MILLERS!!!!!!
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