Noblesville blanks New Castle to begin season

It didn't take long for the 2015 version of Noblesville Miller baseball to opener their season with a nice big win over the visiting New Castle Trojans, 13-0, Monday night at The Dunk.

Nine runs in the first inning really gave the Millers a confidence boost for the rest of the game and all of the first game jitters seemed like they were barely present, if at all.

With just two starters in the lineup, Conner Christman and Dax McLochlin, returning from the 2014 state championship team, many questions arose about who would replace different graduates that helped guide Noblesville to that magical state tournament run.

Who would take the place of the solid pitching rotation that the Millers had that got them to where they got to last season? That is one question that is going to have to work itself out throughout the season. The only pitching experience that's back from last season is senior starter Dax McLochlin and third-year reliever in junior Cory Conway. Will Plumer is back for his senior season after missing a majority of 2014 with an injury.  

It's also a brand new outfield this season. Three-year starter in CF, Brian McLean, is unable to participate this season due to off-the-field actions that cannot be disclosed and Andrew Wilson (LF) and Zack St. Pierre (RF) graduated. Two-year middle infield starter Vinny Essig will miss half of the regular season as a result of violating team rules off the field.

Their replacements have a lot to live up to. Austin Shirley got the starting nod in center tonight and played a pretty solid game. Travis Gillian, who was on the state tournament roster as a backup infielder last season, also stepped in with a nice, comfortable varsity debut.

4A #3 Noblesville 13, New Castle 0 (5 inn.) (March 30 - at The Dunk, Noblesville)
Trojans     0     0     0     0     0     -     0     2     2
Millers      9     2     2     0     x     -    13    9     0

Dax McLochlin is the top returning starting pitcher and 11th year head coach Justin Keever and pitching coach Caleb Small called upon the senior to take to the hill for the season opener.

It took four pitches for Dax to mow down lead-off hitter Garrett Welch. Second baseman Caleb Matthews hit a bloop single into shallow left field, but was forced out for the final out on a fielder's choice by Jared Heard and New Castle left one runner on in the top of the first.

Then, came the early offensive show by the Millers.

Austin Shirley led off with a walk, followed by the same plate appearance from DH Bryce Masterson. McLochlin relaxed and took a 2-0 pitch deep over the center fielder's head, duplicating his game-winning RBI triple that was the deciding run in the state championship back on June 20th. This time, Dax drove in Shirley and Masterson for a two-run triple and an early 2-0 Miller lead.

Two outs on the board after Conner Christman's K, Travis Gillian dropped a single just in front of the LF Heard, scoring McLochlin for a 3-0 score.

The Millers weren't even close to done.

With Gilliam aboard, Alec Parker stroked a nice RBI-single down the left field line and was enough to plate Gilliam for a 4-0 lead. Catcher Alex Cleverly got his bat on the first pitch he saw and drove Parker in and the scoreboard now read 5-0.

Ty Lindstrand walked for runners on first and second and it was back to the top of the order. Shirley notched his first hit of the season, bouncing a single just in front of right fielder, sending both Cleverly and Lindstrand home and it was now 7-0.

Michael Carmosino got his first hit and it was a solid knock over the head of CF Garrett Welch, similar to Dax's triple, scoring Shirley with ease. Masterson smoked a one-hop double to the fence in right center to get Carmo home and Noblesville had stormed out to a 9-0 lead through one full inning.

Dax was a little more comfortable in the second inning, sandwiching a strikeout between two ground-outs to short for a 1-2-3 top of the 2nd.

The Miller bats were back at it against in the home half of the 2nd. Christman started off getting hit by the second pitch he saw. Gillian walked. Parker sent a ground ball to third. Cayden Smekens stepped on the bag to forced Conner out. On his throw across the diamond to first, he overthrew Baze Conway at first, allowing Gillian and Parker to score their second runs of the game each and it was 11-0.

Senior Justin Buchanan came in to relieve McLochlin. It's taken a lot for Buchanan to get himself to the varsity level from where his high school baseball career began and it was obvious that he was itching to hit the mound at The Dunk. The righty mirrored Dax's 2nd inning, putting his lone strikeout between two ground-outs to Carmosino at short to make quick work of the Trojans in the third.

Noblesville added another pair of runs in the 3rd to widen the gap even more. Dax led off the inning with a walk. Gillian singled with one out to move McLochlin over to third for runners at the corners. Parker was hit by a pitch to load the bases. McLochlin and Gillian score the final two runs to make up the eventual 13-0 final score.

Sophomore Harris Camp got the call from the bullpen to pitch the 4th. Walking his first batter, Camp settled down a little and forced Kenny Martin to fly out to left and struck out Heard for two quick outs. A second walk of the inning gave New Castle the most base-runners they had all evening on at once, but that got spoiled when catcher Taylor Matthews grounded out to short to end the inning and any threat of scoring by the Trojans.

Junior southpaw reliever Cory Conway worked the top of the fifth, allowing just one hit to the lead-off hitter Nick Jones. From there, CC had a strikeout and two ground-outs to put the season opener to bed and get the Millers off to a 1-0 start on the year.

Keever, his staff and players leave on Thursday for four games within three days as they'll play some of Tennessee's best baseball teams and one that is ranked nationally most seasons. Below is what Noblesville's spring break trip schedule looks like:

Thursday, 4/2: at #5 Farragut - 7:30 p.m.
Friday, 4/3: at Knoxville West - Noon
Friday, 4/3: at Grace Christian - 3:00 p.m.
Saturday, 4/4: at Brentwood Academy - 10 a.m.

*All 4 games on the Tennessee will be broadcast live on Hamilton County TV! Stay tuned to my twitter (@MillerVoiceNDCB) for details on the specific channel on HCTV. 

*For full coverage of the Noblesville Millers while in Tennessee, turn to the team's twitter (@MillerBaseball) and (@MillerVoiceNDCB).

Until Thursday night...

GO MILLERBALL! WAT! 

Tough road set for Millers in defense of 4A crown

With all championships comes a bigger price to pay the following season. The road never gets easier when you're the hunted, instead of the team that's hunting for that ultimate prize.

The defending 4A state champion Noblesville Millers have an extremely tough slate as they set out next week in defense of their program's first state championship on the diamond.

Noblesville comes into 2015 as the 4A #3 ranked team in the pre-season IHSBCA poll and is absent from the Top 25 poll of the Prep Baseball Report-Indiana.

For the second year in a row, the Millers will host the New Castle Trojans in their season-opener on Monday, March 30 at Dunker Field, The Dunk, named after Donald J. Dunker, who was a longtime coach and Hall of Famer.

Justin Keever, now in his 11th season at the helm, keeps up the spring break tradition and will take his Millers south to the Farragut Invitational near Knoxville, Tennessee.

The schedule continues with their first game of four on the trip at Farragut High School (8-2), who were also state champions in Tennessee last season. That game will be on Thursday, April 2 at 7:30 p.m. The Millers play a doubleheader on Friday, April 3rd. At Noon, they'll head to Knoxville West (1-7) for a showdown and match up with Grace Christian (0-2) at 3 p.m. Game 4 will pit Noblesville against Brentwood Academy (3-2) at 10 a.m. on Saturday, April 4.

Having warmer weather and better playing conditions, Tennessee teams have already gotten a jump starting their seasons in early March, a few weeks ahead of the Millers.

Following the spring break trip to Tennessee, it's back to the normality of their tough schedule. They'll get a home date with Frankfort on Tuesday, April 7 at 6 p.m.

Then, they slate gets pretty interesting. This will be the first year in the Hoosier Crossroads Conference that there will be just seven teams, as this is the first school year that McCutcheon, Lafayette Jeff and Harrison all left for the North Central Conference following 2013-14.

That makes the HCC schedule more unique than any other conference in the state, perhaps. Each Hoosier Crossroads Conference match up will consist of a 3-game series to make up the 18-game league schedule. Genius? I think so.

Within each 3-game series versus the conference opponents, each team will play either two home games and one road game or two road games and one home game in the three-game set.

Rounding out the second full week of the season, Noblesville and Fishers will get HCC play started on Thursday, April 9 at Fishers, Friday at Noblesville, both at 6 p.m. and finishing up the series on Saturday, April 11 at Fishers with an 11 a.m. first-pitch. The Tigers come in pre-season ranked #13 by Prep Baseball Report and unranked by the IHSBCA.

Week 3 is a much earlier meeting than usual for Westfield and the Millers. The Shamrocks will make the trip east on SR 32 to The Dunk on Thursday, April 16 for a 6 p.m. game. Friday night's game on April 17 will be at Westfield at 6 p.m. and the series finale will take place at Noblesville on Saturday, April 18 at 11 a.m. WHS is receiving votes in the pre-season IHSBCA poll and #19 in 4A according to Prep Baseball Report.

Hitting the midway point of the season is usually a telltale sign of which direction the team is heading. The 2015 season's midway point is a tough one for the Millers.  Starting with a trio of games against Zionsville from Tuesday through Thursday, who are pre-season ranked 4A #6 in the IHSBCA and #8 by Prep Baseball Report, Noblesville ends their week with Hamilton county rival Carmel on the road. The Greyhounds are receiving votes in the Indiana High School Baseball Coaches Association poll and rated #23 in the Top 25 pre-season Prep Baseball Report poll. Below is what Week #4 looks like:

Tuesday, 4/21 at Zionsville 6 p.m.
Wednesday, 4/22 at Noblesville 6 p.m.
Thursday, 4/23 at Zionsville 6 p.m.
Saturday, 4/25 at Carmel 7 p.m.

The 5th week of action for Noblesville gets even grittier. Former HCC rival McCutcheon comes to town on Friday, May 1st to keep the rivalry going and helping bump up each teams' strength of schedule. The Mavericks are also receiving votes in the IHSBCA poll and #21 pre-season in the PBR rankings. This game will be a 7 p.m. game at The Dunk in Noblesville.

It will be a quick turnaround, as Noblesville will be hosting the Miller Classic all day the next day of Saturday, May 2nd. The Millers welcome in potential Sectional 8 opponent North Central to play them at 11 a.m. to get the day started. Crown Point and Jeffersonville will take to the diamond in the second game. Game 3 will be the consolation game for 3rd place, which features the losers of Noblesville/North Central and Crown Point/Jeffersonville. The Championship game of the Miller Classic will follow the consolation game.

The Millers will have just one day to practice following the Miller Classic and they'll host pre-season 2A #1 Wapahani on Tuesday, May 5th.

The week continues with their 3-game conference dual with Hamilton Southeastern. The Royals and Millers start at 6 p.m. on Thursday, May 7 at The Dunk and Friday, May 8 on the road at Southeastern. The third game of the series will be at Noblesville on Saturday, May 9 at 11 a.m. Hamilton Southeastern has been pre-season ranked at the #20 team in 4A by PBR and is receiving votes in the first IHSBCA poll.

A Tuesday night trip to Kokomo happens on May 12th at 6 p.m. Finishing up that week, the Millers head to the west side of Indianapolis and face the pre-season 4A #4, in both IHSBCA and PBR, Brownsburg Bulldogs. Those games will take place on Thursday, May 14 at 6 p.m. and Saturday, May 16 at 11 a.m. at Brownsburg and Friday, May 15 at Noblesville for a 6 p.m. start time.

Noblesville closes out the regular season and its 18-game HCC schedule with three against Avon. Thursday, May 21, the Millers head to Avon. Friday, May 22nd will be a 6 and 8 p.m. doubleheader between the Orioles and Millers at The Dunk in Noblesville.

This year's IHSAA State Tournament will start during the last week in May and the 4A State Championship game at Victory Field will culminate the 2015 season on Saturday, June 20th.

Sectionals - at Zionsville
Wedneday, May 27
Thursday, May 28
Monday, June 1

Regionals - at TBD
Saturday, June 6  
     Semifinal: 10 a.m. or Noon
Saturday, June 6 
     Championship 8 p.m.

Semi-State - at TBD
Saturday, June 13
     Championship 3 p.m.

State Championship - at Victory Field, Indianapolis - 7 p.m.

To view the full schedule for Noblesville baseball, head to www.millerball.com and click on Schedule and Results.

*For all info regarding Noblesville baseball, follow @MillerBaseball or twitter. For game wraps and my blog, follow me at @MillerVoiceNDCB and for everything else Noblesville athletics, especially regarding cancellations, updates and results, follow our athletic directors at @MillerNationAD

*Also, follow @HCTelevision to keep up with which games throughout the season will be covered by Hamilton County TV

Hoosier Basketball Magazine - Girls Top 60 workout

On Sunday afternoon, March 15th, on the near west side of Indianapolis, Marian University athletic director Steve Downing, men's basketball assistant coach Scott Fleming and women's basketball head coach Katie Gearlds played hosts to the "cream of the crop" and labeled as the best senior girls basketball players the state of Indiana has to offer.

Garry Donna, publisher of Hoosier Basketball Magazine, was on hand for the 34th Annual Girls' Top 60 workout as the host of the Sunday afternoon event. He was also joined by Charlie Hall, director of the boys and girls Indiana All-Star teams. Hall has some tough decisions to make in the near future. The 2015 Miss Basketball will have been named before the remainder of the all-star team is determined, but Hall is forced to choose from a tremendously talented pool of 2015 senior girls.

Two sessions at 1:00 and 3:30 were pieced together to pit the now 64 girls that were invited to the workout. More than 60 were invited because of injuries to Lamina Cooper (Lawrence North), Lindsay Kusbel (Lake Central) and Zuri Sanders (Evansville Central) who were all selected but injured and were unable to participate, but were still recognized.

Each session contained 32 players that were divided into four teams of eight players. Scrimmages would consist of each team getting to play the other three teams of eight during an eight minute quarter with a running clock.

At the time, it didn't seem like a normally timed quarter with a running clock would be ample amount of game action to see what these girls can do on the court. Those, along with different individual drills that Heritage Christian head coach Rick Risinger and a handful of assistants would run to get the girls back into game mode, will decipher the final 12 that will become Indiana All-Stars.

Locally, three girls from Hamilton county schools were chosen to be a part of the workouts at Marian University. Noblesville's Becca Bergman, Carmel's Abby Abel and Adrianna Murphy from Fishers were all three a part of the 3:30 session.

Myself, Noblesville head coach Donna Keck, along with assistants Tria Yoder and Amy Wuestefeld, made our way to the west side of downtown Indianapolis to support Noblesville senior point guard Becca Bergman.

Bergman was placed on a team that seemed to be seven teammates that would be able to help each others' cases to be an Indiana All-Star. She had the opportunity to play with two-time 2A state champion Peyton Fallis (Heritage Christian), Shayla Wright (Southport), Sarah Cook (Rushville), Bri Gliesmann (Center Grove), Nakeya Penny (Logansport), Mikayla Rowan (Northview) and Mackenzie Taylor (Richmond).

Abel had the great opportunity to play with Miss Basketball candidate from 4A state champion Columbus North, Ali Patberg. The 5'4 Carmel senior was also teammates with 2A state champ Allison Schofield (Heritage Christian), McKenzy Telfair (Indianapolis Ritter), Regan Wentland (Center Grove), Brooke Saylor (Eastbrook), Loren Vukovits (John Glenn) and Katie Key (Frankton).

Murphy was placed on a team of eight that included the third senior, Sydney Hall, from Heritage Christian that made this list. They ran the floor with Joselynn King (Merrillville), Sarah Corbin (Mooresville), Mallory Smith (Northview), Brittany Ward (Pike), Taylor Stephen (Connersville) and Olivia Coleman from Mt. Vernon (Fortville).

It may have been the toughest tryout that any of those 64 girls have had to endure at this point in their basketball careers, but it's one that they'll all remember for the rest of their lives.