Fishers High School

The #2 Fishers Tigers Varsity Baseball Team (11-2/5-0) scored 1 in the 6th and 3 in the 7th to come from behind to defeat #7 Westfield Shamrocks 5-3. The Tigers had plenty of traffic on the bases early in the game but could not push across any runs as they left the bases loaded in both the 1st and 2nd innings. The Tigers finally scratched across the first run in the top of the 3rd. With 1 out, Trevor Hall reached safely on an infield single. Hall advanced to 3rd on Jase Ruggles single to right field. Mayo Fernandez plated Hall on a perfectly executed safety squeeze to put the Tigers up 1-0. The Shamrocks quickly tied the game at 1-1 in the bottom of the 3rd. Tigers starting pitcher Owen Sanders continued throwing the ball well like he has done all season. Through 4 innings, Sanders had allowed only 1 run on 1 hit. The Shamrocks put together a rally in the bottom of the 5th. The Shamrocks leadoff batter reached on an error to start the inning. An infield single put runners at 1st and 2nd with no outs and a sacrifice bunt left runners at 2nd and 3rd with 1 out. The Tigers chose to pass the ball to reliever Owen Lukac for a lefty on lefty matchup. However, the first pitch bounced away from catcher Brady Carman to score both the runner from 3rd and the runner from 2nd on the same play. Now down 3-1, the Tigers continued their comeback ways like they have done numerous times this season. Carter Strole led off the top of the 6th with a double in the left centerfield. Brady Carman followed with a beautiful bunt single down the 3rd base line. Strole advanced to 3rd on the play and scored as the throw kicked away from the Shamrock 1st baseman. Reliever Reid Garber pitched a quick 1-2-3 inning in the bottom of the 6th to set up the excitement in the top of the 7th. Down 3-2, Luke Cherry led off the 7th with a single up the middle. Trevor Hall reached safely on a sacrifice bunt as the Shamrocks attempted to throw out pinch runner Collin Bumps at 2nd, but everyone was safe. The attempted throw ended up in centerfield allowing Bumps to advance to 3rd and Hall to 2nd. Jase Ruggles attempted a safety squeeze, but Westfield defended the bunt well and cut down Bumps at the plate. With runners at 1st and 3rd and 1 out, Fernandez swung away fouling off the first pitch of his at bat. Fernandez surprised everyone on the next pitch executing his second safety squeeze of the night to score Hall and tie the game at 3. A wild pitch allowed Ruggles and Fernandez to advance to 3rd and 2nd, respectively. A few pitches later another wild pitch kicked away from the Shamrocks catcher to allow Ruggles to score the go ahead run with Fernandez hustling from 2nd to score on the same wild pitch for an insurance run. Garber (2-0) earned the victory in relief. Ruggles pitched a scoreless 7th inning for his 4th save of the season. After a leadoff walk, Fernandez, Huston Dunn, and Miles Tebben turned a 4-6-3 double play, and Ruggles struck out the last batter to end the game. Sanders earned a no decision despite continuing to pitch well. Sanders pitched 4.1 innings allowed 2 earned runs on 2 hits while striking out 4, walking 1, and hitting 2 batters. Lukac picked up a strikeout in his 0.2 innings of relief. Strole (double, single) and Dunn (2 singles) led the Tigers offense with 2 hits each. Fernandez led the Tigers with 2 RBI. The Tiges host this same Shamrocks team on Friday for Game 2 of the HCC Series at 6pm.