5/17 Senior Night at The Dunk: Noblesville 9, Harrison 0
Taran Murphy took the hill for the Noblesville Millers on Senior Night and you could tell he was quite proud to be in such a role on a night when he and 11 senior classmates took the field for their final regular season home game.
Murphy shared the mound on Thursday night with fellow senior pitcher Kent Williams and the two combined for a three-hit shutout of the Harrison Raiders, 9-0. Taran allowed two hits, walked a pair of Raiders, but most importantly, kept lackluster Harrison from scoring in his 5 2/3 innings. Williams finished the final 1 2/3 innings, allowing just one hit and going 1-2-3 in the 7th, striking out two.
With the Millers' team manager Jennifer Nance sitting next to me in the press box at The Dunk, it's pretty cool to see the progress of certain players. She keeps the speed gun for our pitchers while we're in the field. Taran Murphy topped his speed out at 86 mph and Kent Williams reached a personal best of 92 mph. She said that he told her prior to the game that his goal was 90 mph. That's quite a speed for a high school pitcher these days, especially with all the junk and off-speed style pitches we see from pitchers.
First baseman Mike Carnahan was the sole bright spot for Harrison at the plate. The stoutly built clean-up hitter went 2-for-3 on the night. He struck out in the 1st, but doubled down the left field line in the 4th and hit a long single down the right field line in the 6th. LF Evan Tislow added a single for the third Harrison hit.
Noblesville got two runs in the first inning and got them pretty quick. Sam Wides and Luke Porter both walked. Andrew Wilson reached on an error by SS Jacob Payne, but was forced out at second on Garrett Christman's fielder's choice that scored Wides. Porter crossed home the next batter when DH Mike Nichols legged out an infield single.
The Millers continued their scoring in the 4th. Senior Garrett Welch roped a single to left to lead off. Fellow Nevin Fansher got plunked by a pitch and Steven Jones walked to load the bases with no outs. Wides drove Welch home on a sacrifice fly to right. Luke Porter drove Fansher in with an RBI ground out to second for a 4-0 lead after four.
They gave it their best effort to try and close this game out early by the ten run rule, but were unable to do it in that fashion. Christman, Nichols and senior Nick Vallier were all put on base via being hit by a pitch. I'm not sure if I've ever seen the bases loaded that way before! Senior John Cola pinch-hit for Welch and walked to bring home Christman. After senior Justin Holloway K'd, senior Steven Jones walked, sending Nichols home. Vallier made it home when Wides was also hit by a pitch. With Porter popping out to the catcher, that gave NHS the bases loaded with two outs. Andrew Wilson made some room on the basepaths with a nice two-run single, plating Cola and Jones for a 9-0 Miller advantage. The Millers were oh-so-close to getting that 10th and decisive run to win it in five, but Christman struck out to leave two on.
That 9-0 lead wound up being the final on the scoreboard last Thursday (5/17) at Dunker Field. It was a night when it was the final regular season home game for Cola, Murphy, Holloway, Jones, Fansher, Welch, Williams, Wides, Nichols, Yoder, Vallier and Hammond. With one heck of a draw for the 2012 Class 4A Sectional 8 draw, Noblesville hosts the sectional this year and drew the bye game, giving them plenty of time to prepare to win the 2012 sectional champioinshp on their home turf.
5/18 at Harrison: Noblesville 14, Harrison 2
After blanking the Raiders in Noblesville the previous night, the Millers handed Harrison a straight-up whipping on their Senior Night with a 14-2 shalacking.
Trevor Salmon started and was tabbed for the win for Noblesville after going 3 2/3 innings and striking out 5. Brock Masterson went 2 1/3, K-ing three and Kent Williams made his second consecutive relief appearance, closing out the seventh with a strikeout.
Nevin Fansher and Garrett Christman were the stat leaders at the plate. Fansher went 3-for-3 with two RBI's, two runs scored and a couple stolen bases. Christman was 2-for-5 with four of Noblesville's 14 runs, three RBI's and stole a base also. Others highlighted in the box score were Nick Vallier's 3 RBI's, Luke Porter's 3 stolen bases and TJ Lindstrand going 2-for-3 with and RBI and two stolen bases.
Clicking on all cylinders and hitting their stride at just the right time of the season is what it's all about right now for the Noblesville Miller baseball team. They've won five out of seven since dropping the two game series vs. Hamilton Southeastern and are 9-3 in the month of May.
Sectional time is here and this is when you can pretty much toss all won-loss records aside and see who's got what it takes to advance in the state tournament. This is very possible and I think it's going to happen for Noblesville. We got the draw we wanted, now we just have to make it happen! GO MILLERS!
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