Eagles finish off sweep of Royals

Apr. 17—FISHERS — Once the Eagles got going, there was very little HSE could do to stop them on Friday night.

The sixth-ranked Eagles trailed 3-2 after three innings in game two of the school's HCC series, but out-scored the Royals 7-0 in the final four innings to finish off the sweep with a 9-3 win.

"It's always good to get a sweep in conference, and especially against a team like HSE," Zionsville head coach Jered Moore said. "There are always a lot of high emotions in this series and I knew after last night's game (a 7-0 Eagle win) they were going to come out ready to battle. We got down early, but this was the first time all season we put together a complete game from beginning to end."

Zionsville went up 1-0 on an RBI-single by Brody Chrisman in the top of the first, but the Royals came back in the bottom of the inning. The hosts loaded the bases with no outs, and scored three runs to take a 3-1 lead.

But that was all the damage the Royals could do against Zionsville starter Drew Dickson.

After a one-out single in the first, Dickson retired 14 of the next 17 batters, striking out 10. He only got into a trouble one other time, walking three-straight batters with two outs in the third, but got a strike out to get out of the jam.

"In the first inning, he was having some issues with the mound," Moore said. "He was uncomfortable and didn't have a good landing spot. He made some adjustments, and after that first inning, he had command of all of his pitches and with the tight zone we had tonight, I was really impressed with how he dominated the last few innings."

Zionsville closed the gap to one with a sacrifice fly from Nash Wagner in the third, then grabbed control of the game in the fourth.

With one on and one out, Chrisman homered to right to put the Eagles up 4-3. Later in the inning, the Eagles added another run on an error to make it 5-3.

Chrisman finished the game 4-for-5 with four RBIs and two runs scored. He was 6-of-8 in the series and is batting .500 (15-of-30) on the season.

"Brody has been hitting all year really well, but the one thing we haven't done this year is hit with runners in scoring position," Moore said. "We left six guys on in the first two innings today, but after that we did a great job of picking them up. Brody had a couple of big hits today with runners in scoring position, and as a whole our approach at the plate was the best we had all year."

Zionsville added two insurance runs in the sixth, getting RBIs from Evan Jensen and David Novak, and two more in the seventh on a wild pitch and an RBI-single by Chrisman.

Dickson (5.1 IP, 3H, 10Ks) left with two on and one out in the sixth, but Zach Nehlsen came on to strike out the final five batters of the game.

Zionsville pitching combined to strike out 31 Royal batters in the two-game series.

"The depth of our pitching staff is crazy," Moore said. "And it gives our starters confidence too, knowing they can go right at guys, and when it is time to turn it over to someone else, those guys are going to come in and do a good job."

Colin Price was 1-for-2 with two walked and three runs scored for the Eagles. Novak and Wagner each had two hits for the Eagles, now 7-3 on the season.

Zionsville hosts Guerin Monday, then has a two-game series with Brownsburg on Thursday and Friday.

"The guys are playing really well, and we have some guys that haven't gotten a lot of time yet," Moore said. "I have a lot of confidence in them when they get their chance, and right now I really like where we are at."

Will Willems is the Sports Editor of the Lebanon Reporter. Follow him on Twitter @Will_Willems.