New Palestine High School

The New Palestine baseball team moved into a first-place tie in the Hoosier Heritage Conference standings Wednesday, beating host Greenfield-Central 4-1 to sweep the two-game series. The Dragons also beat the Cougars 10-4 Tuesday at NP in the opening half. NP is now 6-2 in conference play with three series left - against Delta, Pendleton Heights and New Castle. The Dragons are 12-2 overall and have won five straight games. Rigg Mahurin pitched a complete-game win, allowing five hits and one earned run over seven innings. He struck out 10 Cougars. The Dragons struck first in the opening frame, as Nic Deering was hit by a pitch and scored on Jackson Kamp's groundout. The Dragons loaded the bases, but were unable to plate another run. G-C tied the game with a run on two hits in the bottom of the frame, but that would be the Cougars' only scoring. In the third, Deering reached and scored again, as he led off with a single and came home on Mahurin's sacrifice fly. NP added another run in the fourth, as Gavin Neal reached on a bunt single and scored on Adam Rickey's line-drive single to center. G-C's best threat was in the fourth, when the Cougars put two runners on with one out, but Mahurin induced a flyout and struck out the next batter to quell the rally. The Dragons added another run in the seventh, as back-to-back errors put two runners on for Ben Hirschy, whose infield hit brought one home. Mahurin pitched around a leadoff walk to end the game in the bottom of the frame. Jacob Morris led a seven-hit attack, going 2-for-4. Both of his hits moved Deering into scoring position for eventual runs. Deering was 1-for-2 with two hit batters and two runs scored. Rickey, Hirschy and Mahurin each had a hit and an RBI. Neal was 1-for-4 with a run. The Dragons are next in action Friday at home against East Central, which will also feature a reunion of the 2004 state championship team.