For the Daily Reporter
NEW PALESTINE — The New Palestine Dragon softball team just keeps bashing. Three more home runs, including two grand slams by senior Ashley Prange, lead them to a 16-2 victory against Zionsville on Wednesday.
“The weather was perfect right before the game started,” Dragons coach Ed Marcum said afterwards.
Soon after the first pitch, wind gusts of more than 30 miles per hour started blowing out to right field and the Dragons took aim. After being held scoreless in the first inning and finding themselves down a run thanks to a Zionsville home run, New Palestine scored seven runs in the second inning to firmly establish their control on the game.
Highlighting the second inning was the first of Prange’s two grand slams. She would also hit another in the fourth inning, to help push the Dragon’s lead over the 10 runs required to end a game early.
“She’s been struggling a bit,” Marcum said with a smile on his face. “I joked with her earlier that only Ashley Prange could be struggling while hitting .586. But those two home runs were good to see out of her in those big spots.”
Keeping Zionsville in check was Dragons pitcher and sophomore Kaylea Bullock, who picked up her first victory of the year. She pitched five innings, only allowing two hits and two runs with eight strikeouts.
“It was good to get Kaylea in there tonight,” Marcum said. “With the weather bunching up our schedule like this, we’re going to need some good innings out of all of our pitchers and we got that today.”
The victory improves the 3A No. 1 Dragons to 5-0 on the season as they travel to face Mt. Vernon Thursday night in a county and conference showdown.
“Both teams have been scoring a lot of runs,” Marcum said. “They’ll be ready, and we will be ready.”
