New Palestine High School

Kingston Hedges drove in six runs and Colin Workman finished the game with a grand slam Wednesday as the New Palestine baseball team beat visiting Delta 18-6 in six innings. The Dragons improved to 11-7 on the season and 5-4 in Hoosier Heritage Conference play, winning the opener of the two-game series. NP tallied runs in five of its six at-bats, and at least three runs in four innings. Hedges led the offense, going 4-for-4 with two doubles, a triple, two runs and six driven in. He was just shy of the cycle, hitting a ground-rule double in his last at-bat. Jacob Morris was 2-for-3 with a triple, four runs and an RBI. Marshall Giant was 2-for-4 with a run, a double, a triple and three RBI. Gavin Neal was 2-for-5 with three runs and two RBI. Haydon Mills was 1-for-3 with a double, two runs and an RBI. Mason Monnier was 1-for-3 with two runs. Eli Whiteside drove in a run, and Workman hit a grand slam in his lone plate appearance. Holden Hughes had a solid game on the mound, improving to 3-3 with the win. He scattered nine hits and four earned runs over 5 2/3 innings, striking out 10. Ajay Kropp entered to get the last out of the sixth. The Dragons spotted Delta a 2-0 lead in the first, as the Eagles had four hits in the inning. But the deficit didn't last long. Neal led off with a single and Morris reached on a fielder's choice grounder up the middle. Hedges followed by lacing an RBI single to left. Giant then doubled to plate two runs and give the Dragons a 3-2 lead. After advancing to third on a wild pitch, Giant then scored on Mills' groundout. In the second, the Dragons did their damage with two outs. Brogan Reveles reached on an error to lead off the inning. After the next two were retired, Morris walked and Hedges cleaned the bases with a two-run triple to deep right-center. Giant then followed with a triple into the leftfield corner to extend the lead to 7-2. After a two-run homer in the third cut the Dragons' lead to 7-4, they answered back in a big way. Mills led off with a double. Monnier was hit in the helmet with a pitch and Reveles walked to load the bases. Whiteside forced in a run by drawing another walk. Neal grounded into a fielder's choice to make it 9-4. Morris followed with a run-scoring single and Hedges a two-run double. The Dragons added another run in the fifth as Morris hit a two-out triple and scored on Hedges' ground-rule double to right. Delta scored two in the sixth, but the Dragons walked it off in the bottom of the frame. An error, single by Monnier and walk to Reveles loaded the bases. Neal drove in a run with an infield hit, and then Workman stepped in and blasted the first pitch he saw way over the leftfield fence for a no-doubt grand slam to trigger the mercy rule and end the game. The 18 runs scored by the Dragons were a season high. The Dragons are next in action Friday at Connersville.