NEW PALESTINE — The first glance at seeing an 11-1 victory from the New Palestine softball team would give the assumption — especially on a night when the wind could aid a hard hit fly ball — the Dragons were playing Home Run Derby against Hoosier Heritage Conference and neighboring rival Mt. Vernon Thursday night at New Palestine High School.
The Dragons did have a couple leave the yard — giving them 23 as a team through nine games — but that wasn’t how they were able to end the game early, in the sixth inning, due to the 10-run mercy rule.
New Palestine had seven sixth-inning singles and scored seven runs in the frame to turn a tight 4-1 game into a dominating Dragon victory.
“The last inning we weren’t trying to jack it out,” New Palestine coach Ed Marcum said. “We were just trying to get base hits. We just kept getting base-hit up the middle, base-hit up the middle. Kids came off the bench swinging the bats and making good decisions and getting some big hits for us. It was fun.”
In the sixth inning, Maddie Engle, who had hit a solo home run in the fourth, reached on a three-base error. With one out, Sydney Oliver drove her in with a single up the middle. It was the first of seven singles in the inning. Aglaia Rudd followed Oliver with a single to left field. Paige Ernstes reached on a walk and Alyssa Mumaw, who also had a solo homer earlier in the game, got a sacrifice fly, to score Oliver.
The next five hitters all had RBI-singles. It started with Allie Blum, followed with back-to-back pinch-hit base knocks from Kayla Bain and Sydney Hughbanks, and ended with hits from Engle and Nyla Lewis.
Lewis’s single scored Hughbanks with the run that gave the Dragons a lead of 10.
New Palestine scored in five of its six at-bats, but prior to the big sixth inning, it was one at a time.
In the first, Rudd, the team’s catcher, led off with a double. Her courtesy runner, Jersi Gross, scored on a fielder’s choice off the bat of Mumaw.
In the third, with two out, Blum hit a triple to left field to knock in Mumaw, who again had reached on a fielder’s choice.
New Pal’s lead grew to 3-0 after four when Engle homered to left.
Mt. Vernon pitcher Tori Jenson helped herself with a homer to left to start the fifth, cutting the Dragons lead to 3-1, but Mumaw, the first batter of the fifth for the Dragons, quickly answered with a shot over the center field fence.
“After each inning we were chipping away a little bit,” Mumaw said. “We felt a little more comfortable, not as stressful (in the sixth). When one person starts hitting, they just keep coming.
“It was a different feel. We do hit a lot of home runs, doubles, but the singles are contagious. It’s kind of the domino-effect. One girl does it and the rest of the lineup keeps doing it behind her.”
The strong offensive performance went along well with the pitching performance from junior Courtney Study. Marcum called it her best performance.
Study improved to 6-0. On Thursday, she had a season-high eight strikeouts and gave up four hits. She had just one walk.
“Courtney pitched probably the best game I’ve ever seen her pitch,” Marcum said. “I thought she was hitting her spots. There was the one mistake on the rise-ball that they hit out, but other than that she was hitting her spots. Her change-up was great. She pitched very well and the defense played well behind her.”
With the score 4-1 in the sixth, Mt. Vernon’s Shelby Rakosky led off with a double. Study got Drew Fithian to line out to left fielder Lewis. She fanned Easton Wampler and got Emma Jenkins to fly out to left. Lewis made a nice running catch to end the top half of the frame.
Marcum added he thought Lewis’s nice defensive play gave the team some momentum heading into the seven-run inning.
With the win, the Dragons improved to 7-2 overall and 2-0 in the HHC. They have two conference games next week, Tuesday at New Castle and Thursday at home against Shelbyville, the current HHC leaders with a 3-0 mark. The Dragons next scheduled game is tonight at Zionsville.
Mt. Vernon dropped to 5-7 overall and 1-3 in league play. The Marauders travel to HHC-foe Delta Monday and follow with three straight home games with Lapel (Tuesday), Fishers (Thursday) and Greenfield-Central (Friday, April 28).
New Palestine 11, Mt. Vernon 1
Mt. Vernon (5-7, 1-3);000;010; —;1;4;4
New Palestine (7-2, 2-0);101;117; —;11;14;1
Tori Jenson and Easton Wampler; Courtney Study and Aglaia Rudd. 2B: MV – Shelby Rakosky; NP – Rudd. 3B: NP – Allie Blum. HR: MV – Jenson (1); NP – Maddie Engle (3), Alyssa Mumaw (3). WP: Study (6-0). LP: Jenson (3-6).
