NEW PALESTINE — The wins continue to mount, and Tuesday night was no exception for the unbeaten, top-ranked Class 4A New Palestine Dragons.
Capitalizing on six-timely hits, four Greenfield-Central errors and Sam Booe’s fifth complete-game shutout win, the Dragons rolled to their 34th consecutive victory overall and 25th this season over the rival Cougars, 7-0.
The host Dragons did endure an expected loss, however, despite improving to 6-0 in the Hoosier Heritage Conference.
In the bottom of the third, New Palestine senior left fielder Kinsey Mitchell, an Indiana University recruit, suffered a shoulder injury during a head-first slide into second base while attempting to steal, which forced her out of the game.
Mitchell, who is hitting .457 with 21 RBI, 33 runs and 14 stolen bases through 25 games was taken to the hospital for x-rays during the contest to further assess the extent of the injury, New Palestine head coach Ed Marcum said.
“Tough blow with Kinsey. She’s been such a spark plug for us. Leadoff hitter, hitting .460, fast, makes things happen and she’s a great outfielder. That’s a big blow,” Marcum said. “As I told the team, we really haven’t faced any adversity at all this year, so now, we’re going to have to get tough.”
Mitchell’s role on the team this season has centered around her speed on the base paths, and with the Dragons up 1-0 in the third on Greenfield-Central, she attempted to rally the offense after drawing a one-out walk against Camille Burelison.
As she reached the base, Mitchell slid and her hand got caught near the bag, which jammed her shoulder. She was immediately attended to by trainers on site and was helped off the field.
“She had a great read on it, and it was just one of those fluke things. She does it all the time. It’s just a tough blow for her, being a senior and having the type of year she is having, and obviously, our team is so close, so they feel so bad for her. It was kind of tough to regroup there,” Marcum said.
The Dragons (25-0, 6-0 HHC) came back out after the delay and scored four runs to build a 5-0 lead over the Cougars (14-8, 2-5 HHC), inching one game closer to another outright conference championship.
New Palestine charged forward in the frame with two hits, including an RBI single by Aglaia Rudd and a bases-loaded hit by pitch from Kendal Calvert, while taking advantage of two G-C errors.
A fielding error put the Dragons ahead 2-0 and a wild pitch later scored Lexi Campbell, who reached on a second Cougars’ miscue.
The mishaps put the pressure on Cougars’ starter Camille Burelison, who held strong by going 4.0 innings with three walks, a strikeout and four hits allowed. She was charged with four earned runs with six scored through four frames.
“Camille pitched great,” Greenfield-Central head coach Jason Stewart said. “We haven’t played on turf in about a month and a half, and it looked like it. Our infield, I think, everyone of them made an error, so it kind of is what it is.
“Booe was obviously fantastic tonight, but we had a lot of good at-bats with her. We just couldn’t square it up. They took advantage of our mistakes and you can’t have those mistakes against a good team, especially one at that level.”
Booe had few issues en route to her sixth shutout win this season overall and 10th complete-game victory.
The Louisville commit retired 14 of the first 15 batters she faced with nine by strikeout. She had 14 strikeouts overall and was only threatened once in the top of the sixth when the Cougars put two runners on base with two of their three hits.
“We’ll take it. We didn’t play our best tonight, but we played well enough, I guess. Sam wasn’t her best tonight, but yet, you can see, she’s still pretty good,” Marcum said. “We didn’t hit like we normally hit, and we swung at some bad pitches. She did a nice job keeping us off balance. It was just one of those days where you’re a little flat. Like I told the team, when you don’t play your best and win 7-0, that’s a good thing.”
The Dragons’ biggest contributor was Campbell, an Akron recruit, who finished 0-for-3 but scored twice and drove in a pair of runs with a fielder’s choice in the bottom of the fourth and with a deep sacrifice fly to center field in the sixth.
Rudd went 2-for-4 with an RBI and Grace Paquette was 1-for-4 with an RBI. The Dragons scored their first run in the bottom of the second behind two Cougars’ errors.
Sydney Oliver scored the Dragons’ sixth run in the fourth on Campbell’s bases-loaded fielder’s choice after she opened the inning with one of New Palestine’s four walks.
The Dragons loaded the bases three times in the game against Burelison. Hannah Holden entered the game in the fifth to relieve Burelison and went 2.0 innings with three hits allowed, a walk and a strikeout.
“You just live and learn. The positives we can take is our pitchers threw fantastic tonight. I’ll take that. If they throw like that in sectional, we’re going to be a tough out,” Stewart said.
The Cougars, who won their own tournament this past weekend, put themselves in position to cut the deficit in the top of the sixth after Megan Wineinger and Caroline Gibson both reached on singles.
The duo stood on the corners with two outs, but Booe worked a swinging strikeout to protect the shutout.
“We didn’t get in enough positions where you can bank it all on one at-bat. We didn’t give ourselves enough chances. To her credit, she held us off base most of the night, and we had one spot that had some potential, but you can’t throw the game on that,” Stewart said. “That third inning is what murdered us.”
Ella Redmon, Gibson and Wineinger logged the Cougars’ trio of hits, while Ellie Ewald reached on a walk.
The Cougars host Cathedral today before taking on Lawrence North on the road this Friday.
The Dragons host Kokomo on Thursday with their final HHC game against Delta on Friday for their regular-season finale and an outright title.
“We always set goals at the beginning of the year, and the girls asked how many games do you want to win? Their response was all of them. I kind of chuckled. It’s never been my goal to have a team go undefeated,’” said Marcum, who has now coached 501 career games at New Palestine.
“With the schedule we have, we’re ranked the toughest schedule in the state by Maxpreps. For us to take the toughest schedule in the state and be undefeated at this point is a testament to these outstanding young ladies and how hard they play and how they play for each other.”
