On the Mark: Unbeaten Dragons best Royals, take over top spot in rankings

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The New Palestine dugout reacts after Alaina Miller (5) scores during their game against Roncalli on Saturday, May 1, 2021, at New Palestine High School. (Rob Baker/Daily Reporter)

NEW PALESTINE — State championships aren’t won the first weekend in May, but the anticipation surrounding the New Palestine softball complex on Saturday morning had an undeniable state finals’ ambiance.

Matched in a battle of Class 4A unbeatens against visiting top-ranked Roncalli, the fourth-ranked New Palestine Dragons drew immense support from the onlooking crowd.

And the they didn’t disappoint.

Dragons’ senior ace Sam Booe pitched a complete-game shutout, the New Palestine batting order found a way against the Royals’ near unhittable sophomore ace Keagan Rothrock and the defense played a flawless seven innings to lock down a program-record 17th straight victory.

“You hear so much about Roncalli, and I think the girls were just fired up. They were excited to play,” New Palestine head coach Ed Marcum remarked after his Dragons’ 4-0 win. “The girls just wanted to show up and show everybody who we are.”

With the words, “All Aboard” printed on the back of their warm-up shirts, the now top-ranked Dragons (18-0) are living up to several mantras this season, but none more so than, “We’re Still Here.”

After winning three consecutive 3A state titles from 2017-19, marking the program’s sixth all time, the Dragons entered the 2021 campaign somewhat overlooked following the lost 2020 season as they moved up a classification due to the IHSAA success factor.

However, after last week’s run through three ranked opponents, including No. 6 Center Grove and Hoosier Heritage Conference foe No. 7 Shelbyville, Saturday’s shutout win against No. 1 Roncalli (14-1) has the Dragons back in front.

Prior to Saturday’s meeting with Roncalli, New Palestine was ranked fourth in the state, according to the ICGSA.

With a record 17-0 start that increased to 18-0 following a 5-1 win over visiting No. 18 Franklin on Monday, the Dragons own both softball polls of reference. On Monday, New Palestine jumped to No. 1 in the ICGSA rankings.

“Everybody uses the ICGSA poll, but to me the Maxpreps poll that gives strength of schedule is probably a little bit more accurate. Maxpreps had us ranked one and Roncalli two going into Saturday,” Marcum said.

Much like the Dragons’ unselfish commitment to each other, however, nothing’s changed for New Palestine, which is currently ranked first in the state by Maxpreps in both their classification and in the state overall.

“We beat Center Grove (Wednesday), 1-0, then Shelbyville (4-3 on Thursday), so when you’re playing really good competition, it makes you better. And that’s exactly what our schedule has done,” Marcum said.

“Not that I ever doubted this team, but I certainly didn’t expect to be 17-0 at this point in the season, especially with having to grind out game after game against great teams.”

The Dragons’ longest winning streak to start a season before this year was 15-0 in 2008-09 en route to a 30-1 state championship finish. In 2017-18, the team opened 10-0, then won 20 straight for back-to-back state titles after losing to Center Grove in late April.

The modern-day Dragons are securing victories with chemistry and by being opportunistic. Saturday was no exception.

Rothrock (10-1) limited the Dragons to four singles and issued only one walk — her first of the season — but New Palestine forced the issue to score four runs, the second most allowed by the Royals this year with their ace in the circle.

Roncalli committed three fielding errors in total, which gave the Dragons a chance that they didn’t squander, scoring two of team’s four unearned runs early.

New Palestine’s Kinsey Mitchell put the Dragons’ first two-run inning in motion as she reached on a dropped third strike, and Alaina Miller continued the charge with a single.

Aglaia Rudd singled to left field in the frame, and both Mitchell and Miller scored on an error to put New Palestine ahead 2-0.

“With as many strikeouts as Roncalli has had, they haven’t had to play a lot of defense, so our hope going in was that we could put the ball in play and see what happens,” Marcum said. “I was pretty happy. She still got several strikeouts against us. More than what we would normally do, but I felt like we went in and really, for the most part, executed our game plan.”

Rothrock struck out 12 batters through six frames, upping her season total to 149 in 61.1 innings pitched, but familiarity and mindset aided the Dragons.

“We caught a break with a dropped third, and then Alaina had a really nice hit to left field and the girl misplayed it and it got by her and we kind of took advantage of that. It put us up 2-0 there, and then Sam just took over,” Marcum said.

“A lot of the girls have faced (Rothrock) in travel ball, so I think that helped. I think, as much as anything, it’s a mental thing because she comes in throwing hard, and I think people kind of get discouraged early. So, we talked a lot about the mental aspect. We needed to stay positive and stay up and try to get the next swing or next at-bat.”

The strategy paid dividends again in the bottom of the sixth as the Dragons added two more insurance runs.

Rudd reach base on an error, and Lexi Campbell followed with a single. Courtesy runner Courtney Study scored after another Roncalli error.

Vivian Long came through later with a bases-loaded RBI ground out after another error and a bunt single by Kendal Calvert put runners on every base.

In between and throughout, Booe handled the rest.

Booe (9-0) allowed four hits, walked one and struck out 10 to lower her ERA to 1.42. Rothrock’s ERA is now 0.23.

“There was a lot of debate whether Roncalli and us should throw our main pitchers with sectional coming up, and I debated hard, but I really felt like it was such a big game and hyped game that I didn’t think it was fair to Sam to not let her pitch in the game,” Marcum said.

“I felt like we’ve ridden Sam so far this year, and I just felt like she deserved that opportunity.”

Through the game’s first six innings, she faced only two batters more than the minimum, surrendering a single in the top of the first and third. She hit a batter in the fifth, but the Royals didn’t have a runner in scoring position until the seventh.

Rudd threw out the lone runner in the first with a failed steal attempt at second base.

In the seventh, Booe halted the Royals’ two-out, bases-loaded threat with a flyout to right field. Minutes later, the Dragons swarmed the circle where Mitchell commemorated the win by tracing “Number 1” on the pitching rubber using the field turf’s cork rubber particles.

“These players are really close. They are always talking to me just about how they want to play for each other. We pride ourselves on culture and chemistry and those sorts of things, and I think it just leads to what this team has been able to do,” Marcum said.

“Even with that, though, we still have a lot of work to do. We have two really good conference games this week. There’s not any room for error there, so that’s what we’re going to key on.”

And a potential rematch with, now third-ranked, Roncalli in three weeks during the New Palestine Sectional. The two programs could meet again in the semifinals.

“We just want to enjoy the journey. Sectional is essentially when we want to be playing our best, and we’re going to have to with the sectional we’re in,” Marcum said.

“It’s kind of crazy. When you think of all the great teams that we’ve had, and we hadn’t been able to do this (17-0). You look at that team, and it’s tough to do what these girls have done at this point. They’ve just stayed the course.”