Weather delays and postponements seem to be a common theme already early this spring for the Indiana High School sports season. It happened again this week. Rain, rain and more rain fell all across the state of Indiana. Thursday, April 18 was supposed to be Noblesville hosting Zionsville, but it got postponed to Saturday at 11am. Friday night was the originally scheduled day for the Millers to play at Zionsville. Boone county was under a lot of rain water and in a state of emergency. There were numerous parts of Hamilton county that flooded, but beautiful Dunker Field drains unbelievably, was ready for Saturday, but also could have been played on Friday night. The Eagles didn't have school and the town was pretty much shut down, postponing Friday's game to Monday at 5:30 p.m.
Zionsville 1, Noblesville 0 (Saturday, April 20, at The Dunk, Noblesville)
Noblesville starting pitcher Trevor Salmon looked poised, but walked his first hitter during Saturday's Hoosier Crossroads Conference game at Dunker Field in Noblesville. The one missing for the Millers was their normally active bats at the plate.
Zionsville ace pitcher, Parker Dunshee, wasn't gonna take what Noblesville normally dished out to opponents. Dunshee went the distance for the Eagles, allowing just two hits, but walked four, while striking out 9 Millers hitters.
The Millers were able to get their only hits in the first few innings, but weren't able to do anything with their base runners. Catcher TJ Lindstrand took the second pitch in the bottom of the 1st on two hops to the fence in dead center for a leadoff double. TJ tried advancing to third on an infield hit (fielder's choice) by Brian McLean, but was tagged out by 3B Grant Sloan on the throw by SS Ben Kocher. Garrett Christman walked, but he and McLean were both stranded as they watched a flyout (Luke Porter) and groundout (Nick Miller) to end the first.
McLean got the other Noblesville hit with one out in the third, but was stranded at 3rd base.
The visiting Eagles took it upon themselves that the 5th was their inning to do something offensively. With one out, Drew Bertram singled to left. After him, pinch-hitter Ryan McCormack dropped a hit into shallow right center. Catcher Travis Tokarek bunted for an infield single to load the bags. Kocher grounded to Vinny Essig at 2nd, forcing out Tokarek, but more importantly driving in Bertram for the lone run of the ballgame.
Dunshee was a little pumped getting back on the mound in the last of the 5th. Why wouldn't he be? His offense gave him a slight one run cushion. The Wake Forest-bound senior proved why he'll be pitching in the Atlantic Coast Conference next year by striking out the side in both the 5th and 6th on just 29 pitches (19 strikes) to shut down the Millers' offense.
Drew McLochlin worked the final two frames for Noblesville, silencing the Eagles' bats, something Noblesville could have used maybe an inning earlier.
4A #6 Noblesville 2, Zionsville 0 (Monday, April 22 at Zionsville)
Garrett Christman continued his dominance on the mound this season with his best performance yet. The junior right-hander hurled a 7-inning complete game shutout Monday night at Zionsville, 2-0.
This game belonged to GC and he wasn't going to let anyone take it away from him. Garrett had an RBI double to his credit from his offensive game and that's really all it would take. Trevor Salmon would also double in the game to help lead the Millers at the plate. Brian McLean and Nick Miller made up the other two hits for Noblesville off Ben Kocher, who suffered the loss in his 7 innings of work.
With the Miller defense back to its stellar status, Christman had no worries while he stayed focused on the hill in his domination of the Eagles.
Christman (4-1) allowed just four Zionsville hits all night and he needed only 68 pitches (53 strikes) to take down the Eagles. Another staggering stat is that GC struck out just three, but the remaining 17 hitters into either groundouts (9) or flyouts (8).
The loss dropped Zionsville to 5-5 overall.
Noblesville found itself in the Top 10 of the IHSBCA poll this week at #6 in Class 4A. The Millers (10-4, 4-2 HCC) turn around Tuesday to host the Lafayette Jeff Bronchos at The Dunk in Noblesville for a 6 p.m. first pitch.
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