NEW PALESTINE — With football and basketball seasons completed, New Palestine’s Blaine Nunnally, for the first time in his high school career, could finally concentrate completely on the one sport he plans on playing in the future.
During his senior year, in football, he made All-Hoosier Heritage Conference and was Hancock County Co-Defensive Player of the Year. In basketball, he was All-HHC and honorable mention all-state. He helped lead both New Pal teams to sectional titles.
Baseball, that’s Nunnally’s sport. And, he showed that during his final season as a New Palestine Dragon.
Along with All-HHC and honorable mention all-state selections in baseball, too, Nunnally is the Daily Reporter Hancock County Baseball Athlete of the Year.
He was a two-way standout and a big reason New Palestine won sectional and regional championships.
On the mound, Nunnally went 7-2 with a 1.92 earned run average. He had 89 strikeouts in 62 innings pitched. He was the winning pitcher in both sectional and regional title games.
At shortstop, he was part of a team-best eight double plays.
At the plate, he led the Dragons in doubles (8), runs scored (31) and stolen bases (20). He was second on the team in hits (33) and batting average (.320).
Nunnally will play baseball collegiately at Southwest Tennessee Community College in Memphis. He’ll be a two-way player for the Saluqis, too.
A star in all three sports, Nunnally said he didn’t decide until last summer that baseball would be the one he wanted to continue playing when his high school days were done.
“At the beginning of last summer at the end of (high school) ball, I really didn’t know what I was going to do in college yet,” Nunnally said. “I knew that my potential in baseball was much higher than the other sports, given my size [5-10, 171 according to the Dragons football roster]. I knew that this was the route I wanted to go and I could push myself the furthest doing the sport that I love the most. It fit really well and I was determined to do everything I could to play at the next level.”
Before heading south, Nunnally was a key part in the Dragons second straight trip to Class 4A’s Elite 8, though this year’s journey was a little less likely than in 2022.
The Dragons made the Class 4A quarterfinals in 2022, but with 11 seniors graduating, the chance to repeat in 2023 seemed unlikely.
New Palestine came on strong at the end of the season — winning 10 of its final 13 games — led by Nunnally and fellow All-Hoosier Heritage Conference players Wes Stiller, who was also named honorable mention all-state, and Michael Thorpe.
When it came time to play on the big stage with everything on the line, the Dragons turned to Nunnally on the mound.
In the sectional championship game against the Mt. Vernon Marauders, who had swept the Dragons in a two-game conference regular-season series, Nunnally did in baseball what he had done during football and basketball seasons, performed his best when the stakes were the highest.
In a 2-0 victory over Mt. Vernon, Nunnally fanned 13 and threw a one-hitter. He retired the final 15 batters faced and only gave up a first-inning single. On offense, he drove in the game’s first run and had a bunt single in the sixth inning that helped New Palestine plate an insurance run. He also stole two bases.
“We all knew we were going to be in the ballgame with Blaine on the mound because he was a competitor,” New Palestine head coach Shawn Lyons said. “It elevated our confidence as a team, too. If he’s on, all we’ve got to do is get three or four and we’re going to be in pretty good shape. That’s what happened in the sectional game with Mt. Vernon and the regional game against Cathedral.”
In winning the program’s first regional championship since 2014, Nunnally fanned 10 in a four-hit 4-2 victory over Cathedral, the same school that had beaten them in the 2022 regional final.
“I knew when I was going to pitch every week and I knew when I pitched they needed seven innings out of me and to hold the other team to zero or 1 or 2 runs,” Nunnally said. “I felt like that was enough motivation for me to really just step up on the mound and at the plate. I knew (when I was pitching) eventually the hitters would get going and our bats would get going.”
His role wasn’t just on the field with pitching, defense, hitting and baserunning, Nunnally, just like in his other sports, was a senior team leader, too.
“Knowing our coaches and my teammates believed I could go the full seven innings every time I stepped on mound was a great feeling,” Nunnally said. “I knew I needed to be a communicator as well. I didn’t do much of that when I pitched, because I was more in a zone with the catcher and batter, but I wanted to be able to produce everywhere. Whether it was on the mound, in the field, at the plate or even on the bases.
“I knew once I got on base I was going to be aggressive. I knew if I could get to second base, the middle of the order could get me in. If I was 0-for-3 or wasn’t pitching well, I wanted to shake that off and be a good teammate. If they are having good games, and I’m not having good game, I was happy for them. If we’re getting a win that’s all that matters.”
Nunnally believes his success on the diamond, just like on the gridiron and hardwood, comes down to his competitiveness, along with a strong work ethic.
Out-played? Maybe, sometimes. Out-competed? Nope, Nunnally wasn’t going to be out-competed.
He raised his game to that next level in each of his sports with his competitiveness.
“Just the competitiveness in both of those sports alone (made me a better baseball player),” Nunnally added. “I feel like it really suited me well to perform on the mound when things aren’t going my way, or if we needed a big hit when I was coming up. Those sports have allowed me to be in those positions before, more than once thankfully. I feel like I’m more comfortable because the coaches knew I’ve been put in those positions more and so do my teammates.”
“You have to be very talented, and you have to be unflappable,” Lyons said. “You can’t have any doubt. Once that light came on and he’s pitching really well, he didn’t have doubt. In the dugout, in the tournament, he was quiet and he was just focused. I said after the sectional you could see it in his eyes. He made us a better team because we knew he was going to compete.”
The combination of the work ethic and competitiveness could lead to great things in the future, especially now that Nunnally’s schedule has gone from three sports to one.
His full focus now will be on throwing, hitting and fielding, no more tackling, receiving and shooting 3-pointers.
“I’ve never stopped working, no matter what sport it was,” Nunnally added, noting that he still has been able to relax a little bit this summer knowing his workload is focused just on baseball. “It was always going from working hard at baseball then going to football, basketball. It’s helped me knowing that that’s going to stop, but not that much, everything now is going into one sport.
“The competitiveness, attitude on the field, it’s different than off the field attitude,” he added. “There are two different personalities when you’re playing and not playing. Competitiveness, work ethic, and the attitude on the field has helped me be successful during baseball.”
Nunnally said he plans, after two years at Southwest Tennessee, to go to a four-year school to continue his college education and baseball career. His focus is all in on developing to become a better baseball player.
“I’m going to eat, sleep, and breathe baseball for the next two years,” he said.
He’s all in which is nothing new according to Lyons. No matter what sport it was, Nunnally is always all in.
“Here’s the key, in my opinion,” Lyons added. “We’ve had players that have been successful, but weren’t completely all in in terms of teammates and getting along with teachers and grades and all that, but with Blaine, everyone in the school corporation roots for Blaine. He’s a great teammate, a great student, he’s respectful to all the teachers and coaches and when you get that, it’s easy to root for a kid like Blaine Nunnally. He has all those going in his favor.
“He’ll focus on baseball. You look at baseball, you look at the size of baseball players, you don’t have to be 6-7. They don’t have to be tight ends that are 250, 260. His size plays at any level in college. I’m anxious to see how he does when he does focus solely on baseball. What he did after basketball season got over, he took off.”
