New Palestine High School

With several members of the 2004 state championship team in attendance, Jacob Morris threw a one-hit shutout, leading the New Palestine baseball team to a 2-0 victory over East Central in a classic pitcher's duel. The Dragons are now 13-2 after their sixth straight victory. The Dragons honored the 2003 state runners-up and 2004 state champions during the game. Morris took a no-hitter into the fifth, where a line-drive single through the hole with one out was the Trojans' lone hit. Six East Central runners reached via a hit, four walks and an error, but EC left only two runners on base, as the Dragons turned three doubleplays and Morris picked another runner off first base. He fanned eight batters. Only one runner advanced as far as third base, which came after two batters walked to lead off the second. Morris immediately induced a 6-4-3 doubleplay and struck out the next batter to quell the threat. He then struck out the next four batters he faced. The Dragons got all the offense they needed in the first, when Adam Rickey led off with a scorching double down the third-base line and scored on Jackson Kamp's long two-out double to the right-centerfield gap. The Dragons had runners on the corners with one out in the third but EC starter Ryan Ott wiggled out of the jam, and did so again in the fourth, when he was able to work out of the inning after giving up a leadoff double to Kamp. In the fifth, the Dragons added an insurance run, as Jace Jaques led off with a walk. Pinch-runner Gavin Neal moved to second on a passed ball and was bunted to third by Michael Thorpe. Rickey drove him home with a single to center. Kamp had two of the Dragons' seven hits, with two doubles and an RBI. Rickey was 3-for-3 with a double, a run and an RBI. Nic Deering and Michael Thorpe had the DRagons' other hits, both singles. The Dragons are next in action Monday at home against Warren Central.