By RICH TORRES
For The Reporter
FISHERS – Matthew Cherry knows what it takes to win.
With 335 victories overall since taking over the Fishers baseball program in 2007, Cherry’s Tigers have stockpiled multiple trophies over the past two decades.
Last year’s Hoosier Crossroads Conference championship marked the program’s fourth in 10 seasons (2017, 2018, 2022), and the Tigers’ Mudsock series dominance against rival Hamilton Southeastern reached five straight in 2025.
In 2018, the Tigers won the Class 4A state title and nearly claimed a second in 2021 with a state runner-up finish.
Fishers owns three sectional championships all time (2017, 2018, 2021), but with success also comes the agony of defeat.
Something Cherry knows as well.
“I do know we’ve lost three of the last four (sectional finals),” Cherry quipped. “I know that one.”
A finalist six times since 2017, the Tigers were close to adding three more sectional titles, losing to Zionsville in 2022 and Westfield in back-to-back years (2024, 2025).
With the 2026 campaign underway, the Tigers’ long-term goals remain the same, and it starts and ends with one philosophy.
Trusting the process.
“Our motto this year is ‘Next.’ Next play,” Fishers junior shortstop Carter Strole said. “We just keep grinding. We want to win that sectional this year. It’s a big goal for the team, but we have to keep battling, get there and win it.”
Strole (.464, 5 doubles, 2 HRs, 11 RBI), a Central Michigan recruit, and senior ace Owen Lukac (1-1, 11 strikeouts, 11.0 IP), an Evansville commit, will be key pieces to the Tigers’ potential championship puzzle as two of the most veteran players on the varsity roster.
The Tigers have eight new starters in the lineup and a revamped pitching staff this season but aren’t short on talent, just experience.
“I’ve been telling them all along that the talent is here. It’s getting them to figure out what needs to happen and getting them in the right place, getting them ready and getting them experience at this level,” Cherry said. “They’re talented enough to do it. They’ve been in the program.”
Many of the new full-timers already have their futures set, including senior pitcher/outfielder Collin Bumps (Manchester), senior third baseman Vincent Pecoraro (Anderson University), senior catcher David Pina (Glen Oaks CC) and senior first baseman Miles Tebben (Grace College).
Senior outfielder Sean Frey (Anderson University), junior pitcher Auston Conley, senior designated hitter Justin Brown and senior pitcher Hayden Werner (Maryville) along with junior pitcher Grant Wolf provide more varsity know-how.
Ethan Buelt, a junior outfielder, senior outfielder Andrew Baldini and freshman Henry Cherry at second base have seized starting spots.
“We came into this offseason confused on what to do with a lot of people. We’re still trying to figure it out, since we only had a few guys returning, but we’re a solid group,” said the left-handed Lukac. “I love this group. It’s more than baseball. We’ve connected with each other.”
Learning how to win together will be a process after opening the season 4-5 overall and 1-1 in the HCC with two wins during their spring break trip to Tennessee.
“It took us a little bit to figure out the pieces to start the year. We went down to Tennessee, and we started, I think, 19 different hitters. It was a little bit of a tryout process there,” Cherry said. “We beat the No. 7 team in Tennessee (Clarksville) in our last game down there, so they’re figuring it out. We just have to keep getting better.”
Series splits with HCC foe third-ranked Zionsville and Mt. Vernon have the Tigers moving in the right direction.
“The whole thing is a work in progress, and it’s working,” Lukac said. “Just gotta keep going.”
