NEW PALESTINE — Great defender, great hitter, great baserunner and add great motivator to the list too.
New Palestine’s Allie Blum, The Daily Reporter’s Hancock County Softball Athlete of the Year, played every inning of her four-year high school career as the Dragons shortstop. This past season, she led the state in home runs (21), slugging percentage (1.462) and runs scored (61). The fastest player on the team, along with her state-best total in runs scored, she also stole 15 bases.
And when the team needed a pick-me-up when things weren’t going well late in the season, Blum was there to light a fire that helped lead New Palestine to the Class 4A state championship game.
“Allie has been special defensively since she first stepped on the diamond her freshman year and she was good offensively,” New Palestine head coach Ed Marcum said. “This year she really stepped it up a level. It was just incredible what she was able to do with 21 home runs in as few of at-bats (93) as she had.
“Probably the most impressive thing was how she matured as a teammate and a leader. We had a little rough spell toward the end of the year and she was willing to step up and have a talk with the team. The things she said to the team … it was incredible. It showed to me how she had matured over her four years. I told her afterwards that is was one of the best talks by a player that I’ve heard.”
It was one of those times where a coach asked if anyone else had anything to say, and Blum had plenty to say.
Marcum nor Blum, could remember the exact words during that postgame conference that came after a second straight loss and third in two weeks, but Blum made her point clear. She wasn’t going to have her final high school season end like this.
“It was after our Plainfield game,” Blum said. “We lost and we hadn’t lost to Plainfield in who knows how long. We played really bad.
“I think I said something along the lines of, ‘Next year is going to be completely different for you guys. There are seven seniors on this team and that’s more than half of our team. This is it. This is the last time it’s going to feel like this for a lot of you, for the seven of us especially. We need to play for each other and we need to play for the people that aren’t going to be here next year.”
They listened and they did just like Blum suggested.
Blum laughed as she recalled her team’s reaction to her speech, “They were saying, ‘Al, that was like really good. That was really motivational.’”
The Dragons won eight of the last nine games heading into the IHSAA Class 4A State Finals against Hamilton Southeastern. The only loss before the 2-1 heartbreaker against the Royals in the championship game was an extra-inning loss to Avon. The Dragons avenged that loss with a 6-0 win over the Orioles in the semi-state.
Blum led with her words and with her actions.
Along with the state-leading numbers, she hit .548 with 14 doubles, three triples and 53 RBI, and was named first team all-state by the Softball Coaches Association of Indiana.
In the postseason, she had nine hits, all for extra bases, and nine RBI, at least one in six of seven games, and scored 13 runs.
Against some of the toughest competition (No. 3 Cathedral, Avon and No. 5 Center Grove) in the regional and semi-state games, she combined to go 5-for-9 with four home runs, a double, six RBI and scored eight runs. She was walked intentionally three times during that stretch of domination.
Blum credits taking a different approach to the game for her final high school season.
She had already completed three very good years for the Dragons and had signed to continue her academic and softball career at the University of Kentucky, but she changed things up to make her senior season extra special.
But even as good as those previous seasons were, Blum was lacking confidence in herself.
“The last three years I really struggled with my confidence and believing in myself and not getting down on myself,” she said. “I feel like I had a big change in the way I approached the game mentally this year. I had started to understand that softball is such a game of failure and it’s OK if you strikeout or if you pop out.
“I feel like this year I really, really wanted it more than the other years because it was my last year and I hadn’t won a sectional yet in any of my sports. I really wanted it for my team and for myself. I think that clicked in my head that we were so good that we could go all the way, and we ended up going all the way.”
Marcum said, in the past, Blum would let a bad at-bat get to her and it would lead to another bad at-bat. That didn’t happen this year.
Blum had an all-state year as a junior. In nearly the same amount of at-bats (94), she hit .447 with nine doubles, three triples, nine home runs and 40 RBI. She struck out eight times. But there was more there and Blum showed that this season.
“I wouldn’t say there was anything I worked on I just had a moment of clarity that, ‘you’re actually this good and you need to realize that’ and softball is one of the hardest games because you fail more than you succeed,” Blum said. “It was right before the season started and it just clicked in my head. I don’t really know how it happened, but it did and it completely changed the way of my approach at the plate and to the sport in general.
“It was really satisfying, a big sigh of relief. I always knew I could have that big year, and my parents knew it. It was really fun seeing all my hard work finally pay off.”
The 21 home runs tied the school single-season record set by Ashley Prange, who won Miss Softball and went on to star at the University of Alabama.
“I’d wanted that (home run) record since my freshman year of high school,” Blum said. “Ashley was my fielding coach when I was little. When I knew she had the record, and I hit pretty well my sophomore year I only had 12 home runs, but I thought maybe I could get it one day. I did this year and it was a great feeling. To be able to hold the record with her is amazing, kind of a a full-circle moment.”
Marcum said Blum is right up there as one of the all-time greats of the program, a big statement for a coach that has led his team to seven state championship games and six state titles.
“She was intent on going out with a big senior year, obviously she did and it was incredible to watch,” he said. “I really believe the confidence between her junior and senior year and the maturity was the difference, her talent has always been there.”
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2024 Hancock County Spring Sports Honors
Sport;Athlete of the Year;Coach of the Year
Boys volleyball;Eli Martin, New Palestine
Girls track events;Bella Sotelo, Eastern Hancock;Mark Foster, Greenfield-Central
Girls field events;Ellie Meyer, Eastern Hancock
Boys track events;Andres Langston, Mt. Vernon; Nick Clarkson, Mt. Vernon
Boys field events;Elliot Ryba, Greenfield-Central
Girls tennis;Kylie Brandes and Ava Lusby, Mt. Vernon;Gabe Muterspaugh, Mt. Vernon
Boys golf;Elijah Lemmon, Mt. Vernon;Cody Hibbert, Eastern Hancock
Baseball;Cam Sullivan, Mt. Vernon;Shawn Lyons, New Palestine
Softball;Allie Blum, New Palestine;Ed Marcum, New Palestine
