The final week of the regular season didn't exactly start out as the Noblesville Millers would have liked, but it couldn't have ended any better.
A conference rivalry like the Millers and the Westfield Shamrocks is one that goes from season-to-season and sport-by-sport. With the two school districts neighboring on Noblesville's west side and the east side of Westfield, many of the athletes have grown up being rivals in numerous sports starting at a very young age.
The rivalry is that much more heated when they get to the high school ranks and doesn't get any better than Noblesville and Westfield squaring off on the baseball diamond each spring.
Westfield 4, Noblesville 0 (Mon. 5/13 at Westfield)
Westfield starting pitcher Trent Dean couldn't have been more in a zone than he was in the series opener at Westfield on Monday, May 13. It seemed like his fastball was consistently hitting from the upper 70s to mid 80s, but he also got a lot of help from the plate umpire. A lot of his pitches crossed the plate just below the knees of Noblesville hitters, but somehow were always being called a strike, doing nothing but frustrating Miller hitters.
Dean stands at probably a mere 5'6, but who says that the plate umpire that night really accounted for his being vertically challenged. He did use those calls to his advantage, striking out eight in his seven inning complete game effort.
Striking out Brian McLean and Garrett Christman to start the game, Dean gave up his first hit to Luke Porter, but Dean used a quick pickoff move and picked Porter off 1st to end the top of one.
Garrett Christman had a little bit of variety in his first frame vs. the Shamrocks. A pop out, strikeout (looking) and fly out to keep the home team controlled.
TJ Lindstrand, Conner Christman and Nick Miller went down in order in the second. And, it didn't get any better in the third. Andrew Wilson, Dax McLochlin and Trevor Salmon all three struck out looking, only helping Trent Dean to put his game on cruise control.
Right fielder Chris Ayers led off the bottom of the second with a 2-2 single up the middle into center. Ayers was able to reach second on a stolen base with Lindstrand's thrown down to 2nd went into shallow center to get Ayers to third with no outs. With the next pitch, Cole McCrary sliced a double into right center, sending Ayers home with no trouble for a 1-0 Westfield lead. Alec Nelson followed suit two pitches later with a double of his own, just beyond third base, kicking up chalk down the line to solidify it being fair. McCrary scored on Nelson's hit for 2-0. Three batters later in the inning it was the nine hole hitter Jake Dietz that hit a sacrifice fly to right, scoring Nelson to help the Shamrocks post a 3-spot on the scoreboard in the second to take a 3-0 lead.
Nelson would add another RBI to his tally in the bottom of the sixth to do his part. His double to the fence in right center would score Chris Ayers, who led off the inning with a single.
Trent Dean allowed just two more hits the rest of the night for a three-hit shutout to his credit. The 4-5-6 hitting trio of Ayers-McCrary-Nelson combined to hit 5-for-9 (3 doubles), scoring all four Westfield runs and driving in three of the four.
Noblesville leadoff hitter Brian McLean (double), Luke Porter and Nick Miller scavenged for the Millers three hits off of Dean. Christman worked 6 innings, striking out six, while giving up 7 hits and 4 runs (all earned).
Westfield 5, Noblesville 1 (Tues. 5/14 at The Dunk, Noblesville)
Trevor Salmon took the hill for the Millers in hopes of helping Noblesville salvage a split of their HCC series. He went to work at a medium pace, sending down the first five Westfield hitters with one strikeout.
Westfield got on the board first in the second when DH Matt Kinney singled up the middle to score Alec Nelson to go up 1-0, who got aboard with an infield single with two outs.
The Shamrocks added to their lead in the top of the fifth with a pair of runs. With two down, Nathan Manworren was hit by a pitch and was driven home on a double by catcher Bailey Partlow. The pitcher Chris Ayers helped his own cause by singling home Partlow for a 3-0 lead for the visitors.
The Millers figured it was time they make something happen. Zach St. Pierre roped a one-out single on the ground to center. Three hitters later, St. P headed home when TJ Lindstrand singled to cut the Westfield lead to 3-1 through five.
Alec Nelson led off the sixth with a solo home run deep over the left field wall for a 4-1 Shamrock advantage. That left very few options for Salmon on the mound and he was done after his six innings of work. It was more of a subpar outing to Salmon, to say the least, as he only had 4 strikeouts while giving up four runs on eight hits.
Noblesville was only able to muster just one hit over the final two innings and that was of reliever Luke Dietz.
Drew McLochlin pitched the 7th for the Millers and was rocked a little by the meat of the Westfield order. Manworren and Partlow both singled to start off the 7th and Ayers reached on an error by Dax McLochlin at second base to load the bags. Nelson walked to batters later to give the Shamrocks another run and the final score of 5-1.
Westfield swept the season series over Noblesville two games to none. Winning the series gave Westfield at least a share of the Hoosier Crossroads Conference regular season title.
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