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
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