Rained out twice, Noblesville and Carmel will not meet in baseball this season. Unless, of course the IHSAA sectional drawings have the Millers and Greyhounds battling somet ime during the tourney.
The sectional will be played at Westfield. The IHSAA released tourney pairings today (too late for publication).
I’m not about to climb out on a limb and suggest to you that either defending champion Noblesville or Carmel will win this year’s sectional. Not here in baseball-happy Hamilton County. There have been too many sectionals upsets down through the years.
But, you’ve got to think the Greyhounds and the Millers will enter the tourney as co-favorites.
The Millers are hot. They’re 18-6 and leading the tough Hoosier Crossroads Conference with a 12-2 mark. Brownsburg has lost three conference games. The Millers face Westfield this Friday and Saturday and then next week will close the regular season and conference season by playing Harrison twice.
Carmel is 19-4 and 9-3 in the Metropolitan Conference. The Greyhounds came off a two-game losing streak, including a 13-0 conference beating by Lawrence North, last evening with a miracle-type comeback win over Lawrence North.
Carmel is ranked No. 3 in the coaches poll. Noblesville, which started the season ranked No. 1, is not currently in the Top 10.
Coach Eric Lentz can stack his lineup, from top to bottom, with .300 hitters. Heading into the Wednesday game with Lawrence North, three Greyhounds were batting over the .400 mark, led by Jordan Shepherd at .451. Conrad Gregor is hitting .444 and Ty Steton is batting .418.
Gregor leads Carmel with 27 RBIs and he has unloaded six homers. Brooks Fiala, a smooth-fielding shortstop who is batting .354, has cracked eight home runs.
Coach Justin Keever has three Millers solidly over the .300 hitting mark. The leader is Ryan Wides at .375. Alex Graves, who has come on strong late in the season, is hitting .366 and Jake Roberts is hitting at a .347 clip.
Wides, a center fielder who can go after the baseball, can beat an opponent in lots of different ways. He has scored 30 runs. He has five doubles, four triples, six homers and has knocked home 27 runs.
Wides has 27 stolen bases. That’s a bunch. Next high on the team is four. Carmel, as a team, has 21 stolen bases.
Wides and Shepherd are Mr. Baseball candidates and have been invited to play in the Mr. Baseball Classic, which will be held in Noblesville in June. Also candidates are Westfield’s Jake Hansen and Fishers’ Matt Hitt.
Pitching, of course, usually wins games and usually wins sectionals.
Noblesville has four solid pitchers in Brian Cooley, Andy Hay, Ryan Byrne and Derek Asuras. Cooley is the only senior in the group. Hay is a junior and Byrne and Asuras are only freshman. Hay and Cooley have earned run averages under 2.00 and Bryne and Asuras have averages just over 2.00.
Carmel’s list of pitchers is a mile long, so deep it is kind hard to figure out who is No. 1, or No. 2, or No. 3. Lentz went with two sophomores, Robby Shea and Jesse Taylor, as starters in the key conference games against Lawrence North.
Ryan Rogers is 5-0 with a 3.44 ERA. Greg Vogt, who can knock your eyes out with his fastball, is 3-0 with a 1.59 ERA. Vogt, who throws mainly in relief, is a senior and Rogers is a junior.
Carmel will host its annual Greyhound Invitational this Friday and Saturday. On Friday, Carmel and Franklin Central will play at 6 p.m. and North Posey and Lafayette Central Catholic at 8:15 p.m. at Hartman and Northview and Ft. Wayne Northrop will meet at 6 p.m. and Chesterton and South Dearborn at 8:15 p.m. at O’Malia Field. Game times and opponents for Saturday will be determined by what happens Friday.
