NEW PALESTINE — The vaunted New Palestine offense didn’t even really need to hit the softball in Tuesday’s regional against Edgewood.
Four first-inning walks and two hit batters helped the Dragons plate six runs on just two hits. Three hit batters and two more walks in the second inning helped kick-start the Dragons to a 10-run frame and putting the game well out of reach.
Before New Palestine even had its fifth base hit, the Dragons were up 10-0. After two innings they led by 16.
The Dragons cruised from there, strolling to the ninth regional title since 2003, a 16-1 win at home against the Mustangs. New Palestine advances to Saturday’s semistate semifinal to face Tri-West Hendricks at Jasper High School.
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Click here to purchase photos from this gallery“I knew they had a couple of freshman pitchers, and this is a different type of pressure,” New Palestine coach Ed Marcum said. “I thought if we were patient, that’s what we had talked about, being patient, make sure we’re swinging at our pitch … we were very patient there the first couple of innings.”
The patience paid off in a big way, right from the start.
New Palestine (27-1) set the tone against Edgewood (22-7) freshman pitcher Trinity Robertson immediately, putting its first eight batters on base. A leadoff walk to Jaylin Calvert was followed by a single ripped to left field by Ashley Prange.
A walk to Emily O’Connor loaded the bases, and Michaela Jones was hit by the first pitch she saw to bring in the first Dragons run of the game. A single from Tatum Biddle brought in two runs. A walk to Macy Miller loaded the bases again, and a walk to Mackenzie Jones pushed the fourth run across.
Emma Tucher was hit by a pitch to plate a fifth run for the Dragons and chase Robertson from the game without recording an out. Kaitlyn Burkhart, another freshman, came on in relief and retired the first three batters she faced to end the first with the Dragons ahead 6-0.
That gave the Dragons the early momentum and put the pressure firmly on the Mustangs.
“It makes you relaxed and takes the game away from them a little bit, too,” Marcum said of the quick start. “That’s the big part. A lot of times you see a team score that many in the first and they kind of let up. I thought we did a really good job of coming out that second inning and adding to it, basically putting the game away.”
The second inning gave Burkhart the same problems Robertson had faced in the opening frame. Three hit batters and two walks were accompanied by six New Palestine hits, and the Dragons more than doubled their lead to a comfortable 16-0 with two big hits in the inning — a three-RBI double from O’Connor and a two-RBI double from Biddle.
“Tatum got a big hit that first inning and O’Connor cleared the bases there in the second inning,” Marcum said. “When the pitches were there, we did a good job of hitting them.”
On the mound, the Dragons got strong performances from both Mackenzie Jones and Kaylea Bullock. Jones started and closed the game, pitching 3 1/3 innings and allowing just two hits and one walk.
Bullock pitched the other 1 2/3 innings, her only hit allowed a solo home run by Edgewood’s Loren Carter in the fourth inning.
“I thought Mac did a great job,” Marcum said. “She moved the ball well, got us some ground balls, and our defense played great. They do have some big hitters so we knew we were going to have to keep the ball down and she did an outstanding job at that.
“I wanted to get Kaylea some time because we may need her (Saturday). I wanted to get her a little experience out there. I thought overall she came in and threw pretty well.”
The pitchers were able to settle in knowing they had a huge lead to work with, and almost every Dragon got involved in one way or another. Every New Palestine starter reached base safely from either a walk or a hit.
O’Connor and Biddle each had two hits. Biddle led the way with four RBIs, O’Connor followed with three, and TeTe Hart, Mackenzie Jones and Emma Tucher each had two RBIs. Six different Dragons drew walks, and Tucher and Michaela Jones were each hit by pitches twice in the game.
The win sends the Dragons to the semistate round for the second year in a row, where an 11 a.m. game Saturday against the Tri-West Hendricks Bruins awaits.
The winner of that game will face the winner of the other semistate semifinal, a 1 p.m. game between Jasper and Corydon Central, at 7 p.m. with a trip to the state title game on the line.
While New Palestine looks to have momentum after rolling through their sectional and the regional, they know they have a tough task ahead in continuing their quest of defending their state title and winning another.
“We’ll practice hard the next few days. We’ll make sure they are not overconfident,” Marcum said. “We will try to carry the momentum, but every game is different and we’ll approach it the way we do every game — be prepared and be the best that we can.”