NEW PALESTINE — New Palestine and Bloomington North each loaded the bases twice with nobody out in a nonconference baseball game on Wednesday.
The big difference was what each team did with the opportunities.
The Dragons picked up one run with each of their chances. The Cougars scored four the first time they got the opportunity. They piled on seven the second time, blowing the game wide open and rolling to a 16-3 road win at New Palestine.
“We knew this week with Fishers, Bloomington North is a senior-dominated team, and arguably Pendleton Heights has the best pitching in our conference, or close to it, we knew it would be tough,” New Palestine coach Shawn Lyons said. “Last night we were a hit away from beating Fishers, and everybody who threw tonight had not thrown a varsity inning. We knew that we had to kind of win a game 8-7.”
New Palestine (11-10) used five different pitchers in the game, four of which made their varsity pitching debuts. The fifth, Jerin Meredith, had thrown just 1.2 innings this year.
It was the first varsity start for New Palestine pitcher Alex Kropp. He went three innings, allowing six runs on seven hits while striking out one and walking one. He was relieved by Reise Quillen, Meredith, Eric Roudebush and Grant Wiegand. The Dragons pitchers combined to allow 14 hits while striking out two, walking three and hitting six batters.
That was a stark contract from what the Cougars had on the mound, as they threw four of their top five pitchers. They combined to hold New Palestine to four hits, striking out six while walking seven and hitting one batter.
The hosts fell behind early. In the top of the first, the Dragons had a fielding error, a throwing error, a double, a single and the hit batter, giving the Cougars a quick 3-0 lead.
New Palestine loaded the bases with nobody out in the bottom of the third and trailing by five but could only push across one run as a double play and flyout ended the inning.
The Cougars loaded the bases themselves in the top of the fourth, driving in four more runs on four hits and two walks, opening up an eight-run lead.
The Dragons again loaded the bases with no outs again in the fifth, with four straight walks opening the frame and pushing a run across. Two flyouts and a groundout would prevent the hosts from closing the gap any further.
Bloomington North opened up the sixth inning with a walk and three straight hit batters. Three hits and another walk pushed across seven runs, effectively ending the game.
Zayden Stiller got his first career RBI in the fourth inning, a single that scored Zach Neligh.
“We have a freshman catcher tonight, Zayden Stiller. He’s really good,” Lyons said. “Obviously he’s playing behind Colby, so he’s kind of hiding back there, but we gave him the start tonight, second start as a varsity player, and he got a base hit against some really good pitching.”
Neligh had two hits to lead the Dragons offense, his second straight night doing so.
“We’ve got seven hits the last two nights, and he’s got four of them,” Lyons said. “Zach’s swinging the bat really well.”
The Dragons now look ahead to a big Hoosier Heritage Conference doubleheader on Friday, a pair of games at conference-leading Pendleton Heights. Game 1 is set for a 5:30 p.m. first pitch.
“It got out of control late, because we kept hitting them, but I put Wiegand in at the end of the game — he hasn’t pitched — kind of to get everybody loose and lively a little bit, not beat themselves up,” Lyons said. “Obviously we know Friday night is the big one. We’re going to have to play really well against a Pendleton Heights team that is well-coached and very talented.”
[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Boxscore” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]
Bloomington North 16, New Palestine 3
BN (16-2);302;407;—;16;14;1
NP (11-10);001;110;—;3;4;3
WP: Sam Klein. LP: Alex Kropp.
3B: Harry Deliyannis (BN). 2B: Dylan Steele, Riley Gallagher, Xavier Trueblood (BN). RBI: Zayden Stiller, Eric Roudebush (NP); Riley Gallagher 4, Jack Gallagher 2, Trueblood 2, Deliyannis 2, Steele, Aaron Steinfeldt, Colton Bex, Ben Freel (BN).
[sc:pullout-text-end]