Noblesville's skid reaches 5 games: Brownsburg 3, Noblesville 0 (9 innings)

Brownsburg 3, Noblesville 0 (9 innings)

The Noblesville Millers' losing streak has now reached five games. They just can't seem to catch a break, even when they're right in front of them, something is always in the way. Wednesday night, it was like deja vu from Monday's game at Brownsburg. I'll get to that further down, keep reading.

In one of the most dominating individual pitching performances that I've seen in high school baseball, I had no idea that the game would take the turn that Wednesday night's game at Dunker Field in Noblesville did in the late stages of the game. Noblesville's Derek Asuras put together a night on the mound that coach Justin Keever couldn't have asked more of. Through 8 innings of work, Asuras had 17 strikeouts (six looking), allowed two hits and one walk, while also only yielding just four groundball outs, one lineout and one flyout to the Millers' defensive credit behind him.

Asuras struck out the side in the 1st and 6th innings and had two strikeouts in the 3rd, 4th, 5th and 7th innings. So, did DA run out of gas in the top of the 9th inning? Should Keever have pulled him in favor of reliever Dewey Rodgers before the 9th inning?

With the score knotted at 0-0 thru eight full innings, I honestly had that eerie feeling that something was going to happen in the 9th inning and I was obviously hoping that it wouldn't happen for the Brownsburg Bulldogs.

Second baseman Tanner Watson misplayed a grounder that took an odd bounce to him, allowing Jeremy Jones on with a leadoff infield single. DH John Moore flew out to right and Tyler Owensby struckout looking, to give the Bulldogs two outs. Isaac Sampen was intentionally walked, sending Jones to 2nd. It was probably a mistake to give Sampen the "free pass" to first base and face Bobby Carr, but Keever was willing to take that chance.

Here's where the deja vu comes into play. Monday night at Brownsburg, with the game tied at 2-2 in the bottom of the 7th inning, the tide turned for the Bulldogs. Bobby Carr smacked a double off the outfield wall, scoring Tyler Whetstone to give Brownsburg a 3-2 victory over the Millers.

Back to Wednesday night at Noblesville. With Sampen getting the intentional walk to first and Jeremy Jones sitting on 2nd, that sent Carr to the plate in a situation where he was licking his chops for a chance at. The first pitch that Carr saw from Asuras in the at-bat sailed over RF Caleb Shore's head and over the right field fence for a three-run home run for Bobby Carr. This gave Brownsburg a 3-0 lead in the top of the 9th. David Oliger singled in the next at-bat, the last batter Derek Asuras would face in his best game on the mound of his high school career, statistically. Dewey Rodgers faced two batters to get the Millers out of the top of the 9th.

Brownsburg relief pitcher Levi Slawta confidently shutdown the Miller effort in the bottom of the 9th. Seth Rayle flied out to right field, Caleb Shore struckout and Tanner Watson grounded to the shortstop for the final out of the game.

Watson led the Millers offensively going 3-for-4, with two of his three singles beating out infield hits. Jameson Brock also had a couple singles.

Noblesville stays home Friday night to host 4A #4 Zionsville (9-1), first pitch is at 7 p.m. On Saturday, the Millers and Eagles will clash again, but this time it will be in the 4th Annual Victory Field Classic. Noblesville and Zionsville start their HCC battle at 5:30 p.m. and 4A #5 Cathedral (8-1) faces 4A #6 Lawrence Central (6-0) in the nightcap, following the Noblesville-Zionsville game.

Come on out to Dunker Field on Friday night and come out to Victory Field on Saturday evening to see some great high school baseball!