NEW PALESTINE — Don’t write off the Dragons just yet. Despite a rough start to a season with sky-high expectations, New Palestine finds itself back to a .500 record and a 3-1 conference record.
With two wins over conference rival Yorktown on Friday night, the Dragons can march on.
“It felt good to get back home,” Dragons’ coach Shawn Lyons said after the game. “We started with six straight on the road so it’s nice to be back here and play well.”
The wind was blowing out straight to left-center field and directly in the pitchers’ faces for the first game, which seemed to have caused some issues for every pitcher who took the mound.
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But Dragons senior Jack Walker, an Indiana University recruit, dug in, looking for his first win of the season. Despite issuing six walks, Walker’s stuff was never seriously threatened by the Tigers’ offense. In three and two-thirds innings he struck out five and allowed only two hits.
“No matter the weather, Jack has gotta own his stuff,” Lyons said. “He lost his command a little bit tonight, but we will get him conditioned tomorrow and focus his bullpen session on getting ready to face a great team in Mt. Vernon next week.”
The solid pitching continued in Game 2, in which senior Zach Neligh struck out nine in four innings while allowing three hits. Fellow senior Joshua Jacques held the Tigers hitless in the last three innings to complete a 9-0 Dragon victory.
“Neligh has really good stuff,” Lyons said. “When he is commanding it, he’s tough to hit; both of our guys had some walks tonight that we need to focus on improving, but I like where they are.”
The Dragons scored a combined 25 runs on 27 hits in the two games, which pleased Lyons.
“We really focused on our hitting in practice this week. Not trying to do too much and just making solid contact,” Lyons stated. “It was great to see it pay off tonight.”
Colby Jenkins hit the only home run of the night, in the third inning of game one. The Dragons had three other extra base hits on the night, meaning they had 23 singles. With aggressive base running and timely hitting the Dragons were able to pour on the runs.
The Dragons play a mid-week game next Monday at home against Whiteland before a big Hoosier Heritage Conference showdown against arch-rival Mt. Vernon next Friday night at 5:30 p.m.
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Game 1
New Palestine 16, Yorktown 2
YHS (3-6, 1-4 HHC);010;10;-;2;4;1
NP (3-4, 2-1 HHC);551;5x;-;16;16;2
WP: Jack Walker (1-1). LP: Dominic Cantanzarite (0-1).
2B: G. Hickman, B. Tabor (NP), J. Taylor (YHS).
3B: J. Walker (NP), G. Reedy (YHS).
HR: C. Jenkins (NP)
Notable: Jack Walker: 3.2 IP, 5 K, 6 BB, 2 H, 1 ER; 2-3, 1 3B, 2 RBI.
Game 2
#2 New Palestine 9, Yorktown 0
NP (4-4, 3-1);026;010;0;-;9;11;1
YHS (3-7, 1-5);000;000;0;-;0;3;0
WP: Zach Neligh (2-0). LP: Gabe Phipps (0-2).
2B: E. Roudebush (NP), R. Hook (YHS).
Notable: Z. Neligh 4 IP, 3 H, 9 K; E. Roudebush 3-3, 2B, RBI.
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