NEW PALESTINE — Due to rain on Wednesday, New Palestine had to wait a couple of days to complete the Hoosier Heritage Conference baseball sweep of Yorktown.
On Friday, at home, they defeated the Tigers (2-4, 2-4) 10-0 in five innings to improve to 4-1 on the season and 3-1 in conference play.
“It’s two really important wins because Yorktown is a solid program. They were in the semi-state a few years ago. We barreled up a lot of baseballs and threw strikes. In the two-game series we only walked one guy and had zero errors, so we only gave up one free base, and that’s something we preach over and over,” New Palestine head coach Shawn Lyons said. “Another reason this one is important is because we have a lot of sickness going through the team. [Adam] Rickey wasn’t here tonight, [Michael] Thorpe wasn’t here and neither was [Jack] Anderson. That’s three seniors that are big parts of our program. Our depth allowed us to get some other guys a chance to play and perform.”
Even after the two-day wait, the Dragons bats and pitching looked just like they did in the team’s 13-0 Game 1 win over the Tigers Tuesday at Yorktown.
That’s something Lyons and the coaching staff made sure was a priority the last two days of practice.
“What it does is when you go outside and play a game and then have to spend the next two nights in the gymnasium, you have to really work hard to get better in those two nights. You can’t just go through the motions,” Lyons said. “What happens a lot is you have a letdown because who wants to be in the gym when you should be outside playing. It’s a testament to our players and our coaches. We held everyone accountable and worked hard the last two nights to get ready.”
After a quick first inning by New Palestine starting pitcher Henry Thorpe, the Dragons offense went to work.
A Jacob Morris single and a pair of walks set up Rigg Mahurin to bring in the first run of the day on a sacrifice fly. A batter later, a two-out Gavin Neal triple to right-center scored both Jackson Kamp and Ben Hirschy to push the Dragons lead to 3-0 after one inning.
In the third, they broke it open.
New Palestine sent 10 batters to the plate, recorded five hits, walked twice and scored five runs.
Hirschy began the inning with a single and later came around to score, along with Neal, on a two-run single by Henry Thorpe. Nic Deering drove in Wyatt Matheis with another single and Morris drove in the final two runs with the fifth single of the inning.
All five runs came with two outs.
“It happened the other night too, but we’ve had a couple of two-out hits and those are so painful when they happen to you. When you do it to the other team it’s huge,” Lyons said. “We had a couple tonight that really kind of helped push us further ahead.”
In the fourth, the Dragons added two more runs to push the lead to double digits.
Neal doubled for his second extra-base hit of the game and later scored on a Matheis single, and Henry Thorpe drove in his third run of the game on his second hit of the night.
With three RBI and a pair of hits on the night, Henry Thorpe did damage both at the plate and on the mound.
He threw a complete-game shutout to earn the win, allowing just two hits and one walk over the five innings. He retired 15 of the 18 batters he faced and struck out five.
“It was difficult tonight to pitch with the wind. He [Thorpe] had command of his fastball, changeup and curveball. He pitches to contact, and we had a good defense behind him tonight,” Lyons said. “He did exactly what we wanted him to do. He kept them off balance and relied on his great defense.”
The Dragons are back in action today at the Lebanon Tournament. The first game between Lebanon and Beech Grove begins at 12 p.m., with New Palestine to play Ben Davis at 2:30 p.m. The losing teams will play at 5 p.m. and the winners will play in the championship game at 7:30 p.m.
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New Palestine 10, Yorktown 0
Yorktown (2-4, 2-4);000;00;—;0;2;0
New Palestine (4-1, 3-1);305;2x;—;10;12;0
Jacob Grim, Luke Diebold (3) and Jayce Key; Henry Thorpe and Jackson Kamp. 2B: NP – Gavin Neal. 3B: NP -Neal. WP: Thorpe (1-0). LP: Grim (0-2).
