It didn't take long at all for the 2016 version of Noblesville Miller baseball to make its presence known to their first opponent of the year.
12th-year head coach Justin Keever put together a pretty solid starting lineup to get his Millers' season off on the right foot.
With both teams anxious to get on the field, none other than senior southpaw Cory Conway would take to the hill for Noblesville.
Aside from a Caleb Matthews single that got by 3B Connor Christman, Conway had his way with the Trojans in the 1st, stranding Matthews at third.
Christman quickly redeemed himself with a one-out double to the left field wall. Michael Carmosino walked for a pair of runners aboard for cleanup hitter Bryce Masterson. The junior DH took a 1-0 pitch and turned it into a towering 3-run home run that flirted with the right field foul pole, but stayed fair, giving the Millers a solid three run lead after one inning.
Cory threw just 12 pitches in the second inning, getting Taylor Matthews and Mason Gillis to strikeout, swinging at a third strike in the dirt and out at first base on throws to the first base bag from Alex Cleverly to Ty Lindstrand. Baze Conway was fanned looking to end the second. Not too shabby striking out 5 New Castle hitters through two.
Jackson Thurman led off the home half of the second, reaching on an error by Dylan Darling at third. Thurman made his way to second on a pitch in the dirt and then on to third on Harris Camp's groundout. The speedy junior Thurman raced home on Travis Gillian's RBI-groundout to short for a 4-0 score.
Over the next few innings, Conway kept the opposing hitters in-check, getting four more to go down on strikes, totaling 9 K's in his five innings of work to pick up the win.
Carmosino, Cleverly and Lindstrand all walked to load the bases. Austin Shirley then laced a two-run single to the outfield to plate both Carmosino and Neil Brown, who courtesy ran for Cleverly. That put the home standing Millers up 6-0 and ready to close this one out.
Christman walked for the second time in his four plate appearances and wound up scoring his second run of the night on Cleverly's fielder's choice to give Noblesville a season-opening 7-0 win over the New Castle Trojans.
In a game like this, it was an opportunity for Keever and his pitching coach Caleb Small to get a look at three different pitchers. They knew what Conway and Clayton Marowski had to offer, both being starters in last season's rotation. Sophomore righty Kade Gorman came in and pitched the top of the 7th, striking out two of the five Trojans he faced.
The Millers (1-0) hit the road for their annual Spring Break trip to Tennessee to play against some of the best teams in the Midwest and possibly the entire country.
Their first game is Thursday, March 31 against Smyrna (TN) Bulldogs (7-5) at 6 p.m. They'll play two on Friday starting at 12:30 versus the Collierville (TN) Dragons (7-6) and against at 5:30 against the Riverdale Warriors of Murfreesburo. The Millers finish up their 4 games in 3 days trip to the Volunteer State with a Saturday morning matchup with McCracken County (Paducah, KY) (6-2) at 10 a.m.
Stay tuned to my blog for all things Miller baseball while the team travels southward.
Following their trip, Noblesville returns home to The Dunk for a meeting with Frankfort on Tuesday, April 5 at 6 p.m.
Go Millers!
No comments:
Post a Comment