It doesn't matter what sport it is that the Noblesville Millers and Hamilton Southeastern Royals face off in, it becomes one of the more heated relationships between rival schools. The two Hamilton county schools trade chants back-and-forth at football and basketball games, as well as other events, giving the fans something more to act bitter about than who wins or loses.
The beauty of a rivalry like that of Noblesville and Hamilton Southeastern is that the games can go either way, but the competition is always going to be there.
I came across an interesting stat given to me courtesy of Noblesville assistant athletic director Tony Oilar while sitting in the press box during Tuesday night's game. Before Noblesville took Game 1 of the two-game set, he told me the astounding fact that Noblesville didn't have one single victory over Hamilton Southeastern in any sport at all during the 2012-13 school year. Noblesville baseball brought that stretch to a screeching halt with a 5-1 victory on Tuesday, May 8 at The Dunk.
Noblesville 5, Hamilton Southeastern 1 (The Dunk, Noblesville)
With lefty Trevor Salmon on the mound, head coach Justin Keever was counting on the southpaw to pitch the Millers to a home field win.
The Royals were aiming to catch Salmon off guard from the get-go. He struck out Trey Gantt to lead off the game, but both Matt Nash and Steven Curry were both hit by a pitch with 0-2 counts. Clean up hitter Mitch Roman muscled through an eight pitch at-bat and doubled home Nash for a 1-0 Hamilton Southeastern lead. Salmon quickly struck out Brendan Burns and Jake Watrous to end the 1st.
Nathan Upchurch had the Miller bats in-check for the first few innings, not allowing a hit, but walked Conner Christman and hit Nick Miller with a pitch.
No worries. The Miller offense showed Upchurch what they could do in the 4th and 5th innings.
Luke Porter took a one out, 1-1 pitch to left to put Noblesville's first hit on the scoreboard. Porter was just about caught stealing on Upchurch's throw to first, but as LP took off for 2nd, 1B Jake Watrous airmailed his throw to 2nd into shallow left, getting Porter to second with ease now. TJ Lindstrand dropped a single to left for runners in scoring position and 2nd and 3rd. Andrew Wilson followed suit with a hit to left, but his drove in Porter for a 1-1 tie. Two hitters later, Connor Christman hit a sacrifice fly to left to score TJ and give Noblesville a 2-1 lead that they wouldn't give up.
Nick Miller got things started in the 5th with a one out walk. Garrett Christman moved him over to second with a single to right center. Porter also singled, plating Miller. Lindstrand busted the score open with a two-run double that scored Christman and Porter for what would be the final tally of 5-1.
Aside from a rocky first inning, Trevor Salmon was on the money. He worked the corners and every bit of the strike zone, taking down 11 Royals as his strikeout victims, while allowing just five hits in six innings. Drew McLochlin pitched a quick top of the 7th, tossing just six pitches with one fly ball out and the final two outs were groundouts to Garrett Christman at short.
Hamilton Southeastern 6, Noblesville 1 (at Hamilton Southeastern)
The Millers were out to make a statement in their short trek to Fishers to face the Hamilton Southeastern Royals.
Nick Miller walked and eventually scored on a passed ball to give the Millers an early 1-0 lead.
That lead didn't last long at all. Mileke Austin slipped into hitting leadoff after he started in the 9th spot Tuesday night. Austin took the first Garrett Christman pitch he saw and laced it into left field for a leadoff single. Two batters later, the tide changed. Trey Gantt sent a 1-0 pitch sailing over the right field wall and the host Royals found themselves taking a 2-1 lead on Noblesville.
With starting pitcher Steven Curry making quick work of the Millers in the 2nd, HSE was back at it. First baseman Jake Watrous led off and reached base on an error by third baseman Luke Porter. Two consecutive groundouts to Christman at the mound by Jack Casey and Mileke Austin gave Noblesville the upper hand, somewhat. Christman had things on his side for the moment. Catcher Matt Nash drove in Watrous with a single to shallow center to put the Royals up 3-1 through two innings.
The Millers' bats were put away quick in the third, just as they were in the second. Both innings, Noblesville was only able to manage getting a runner aboard with a walk, but left both stranded.
At this point, the clouds were starting to roll in and swirl around southeastern Hamilton county. There hadn't been thunder or lightning, so play was still on.
Steven Curry flied out to center. Hunter Hardee drilled a grounder up the middle and into center, but was caught stealing on TJ Lindstrand's throw down to Dax McLochlin at second. Erik DeWael struck out on six pitches to end the third.
The light rain that started to fall in the 3rd became more of a downpour and both teams waited it out in the dugouts in hopes to finish this under the lights after the rain. But, play had been suspended until Friday afternoon.
Play continued at the top of the 4th and only lasted another inning and a half. The Royals were able to managed three more runs off Luke Porter to finish off this HCC game with a 6-1 win over the Millers in just 4.5 innings of play after it was called official.
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