GREENFIELD — After dropping its first game of the season the night before, the New Palestine softball team bounced back in a big way Thursday night.
In a Hoosier Heritage Conference and Hancock County battle, the No. 3 ranked Dragons (11-1, 5-0) defeated the Cougars (9-6, 1-3) 16-2 at Greenfield-Central High School.
“It was a good bounce-back win,” Marcum said. “We were a little slow at the start, but we settled down and got to them.”
Five years ago to the day, Marcum picked up win number No. 400. He nearly had No. 500 on the same date five years later. With rain forcing the Dragons to call their game against Franklin Community on Monday while ahead 12-3 in the fourth, he had to settle for No. 499 on Thursday.
“The memory popped up today that five years ago today was 400. With the COVID years, that means that we’ve basically averaged 25 wins a year over the last four years,” Marcum said. “I thought it would’ve been cool to get it on the same date.”
After being held to one hit and one run in a 5-1 loss to No. 6 Roncalli on Wednesday, the Dragons offense was back to doing what it normally does.
“Roncalli’s pitcher just kept us off balance and we didn’t have very good at-bats and that’s just unlike us. We tried to put that behind us and move onto today,” Marcum said. “We want to win every game, but we told them if we had the choice and had to pick one or the other, tonight’s game was more important because of conference. Proud of my kids for bouncing back because they were pretty disappointed in themselves.”
New Palestine tallied two runs in the first, fourth, and fifth innings before exploding for 10 runs over the final two frames.
To grab the early 2-0 lead, the Dragons used a G-C error, a pair of walks, and a hit-by-pitch. Katie Hirschy walked to bring in Jersi Gross, and Maddie Engle hit a sacrifice fly to score Syd Oliver.
Following the top half of the first, New Palestine’s Courtney Study and Greenfield-Central’s Madysen Herbert shut things down in the circle over the next few innings.
Study retired 12 of the first 14 batters she faced and struck out nine through the first four innings.
Herbert was just as good over that stretch. After allowing three of the first four batters of the game to reach base she sent down the next eight and kept the Cougars in it heading into the fourth inning.
In the fourth, the Dragons broke through for two more runs. After a hit-by-pitch put Hirschy on base, Engle smacked a two-run home run over the left field fence to double the lead.
An inning later, RBI singles by Paige Ernstes and Engle pushed the Dragons lead to 6-0.
“She [Herbert] threw quite a bit last night, and we knew that coming in that she was going to be a little bit tired,” Greenfield-Central head coach Gary Roberts said. “She beat them last year though, so we wanted to go with her.”
The Cougars offense found life in the bottom half of the fourth. Singles by Alyssa Greenwalt and LeiLeanna Faitele and a walk by Ailea Dowdy set up Kristen Wineinger for an RBI single.
The Cougars only other run came on a Leilani Forshey solo home run in the sixth off of reliever Cailyn Hurst.
A five-run game heading to the sixth, New Palestine added five runs in consecutive innings.
In the sixth, the Dragons sent 10 batters to the plate, and in the seventh sent nine hitters up to bat.
Five singles, two walks, and a pair of G-C errors fueled the big sixth inning. Oliver brought in two runs with a single, Ernstes had an RBI-hit and Engle picked up her third hit and fifth RBI of the night.
In the seventh, Jersi Gross, Ernstes, and Saydie Miller all doubled and scored. Ernstes, Miller, Engle, and Reese Rosenbaum all drove in runs.
“We’ll come back from this,” Roberts said. “They’re No. 3 in the state for a reason.”
Engle led the way at the plate with three singles, a home run, and six RBI. Ernstes had three hits and two RBI.
“I thought Maddie was fantastic. She kind of did it all. It was a great night for her and I thought Paige did a great job tonight too,” Marcum said. “We just kind of got it rolling and that’s what we do.”
In the circle, Study allowed four hits and one run over five innings of work, and struck out nine on way to her eighth win of the season. Hurst and Sadey Hughbanks each pitched an inning in relief to close it out.
“I thought Courtney pitched very well. Last year against Greenfield, it was the same scenario where she had county track the night before and I thought she lost her legs a little bit. I was hoping to pitch her five innings and that’s what ended up happening,” Marcum said. “Cailyn and Sadey came in and pitched well too.”
The Cougars are back in action Saturday at 12 p.m. at home against New Castle. The Dragons have a doubleheader with Jennings County on the road on Saturday beginning at 11 a.m.
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New Palestine 16, Greenfield-Central 2
New Palestine (11-1, 5-0);200;225;5;—;16;13;0
Greenfield-Central (9-6, 1-3);000;011;0;—;2;5;4
Courtney Study, Cailyn Hurst (6), Sadey Hughbanks (7) and Reese Rosenbaum; Madysen Herbert, Ailea Dowdy (6), Addie Heacox (7) and LeiLeanna Faitele. 2B: NP – Jersi Gross, Paige Ernstes, Saydie Miller. HR: NP – Maddie Engle (5). G-C – Leilani Forshey (9). WP: Study (8-0). LP: Herbert (3-1).
