New Palestine High School

The New Palestine softball team clinched a piece of its second consecutive Hoosier Heritage Conference championship Thursday, downing Pendleton Heights 5-1. The Dragons are now 16-1 on the season and 6-0 in HHC play with one conference game remaining. Allie Blum hit a two-run homer in the first inning to get the Dragons off and running. The Dragons' second batter of the game, Blum stepped in after Jersi Gross drew a leadoff walk. Sydney Oliver followed with a triple and scored on Paige Ernstes' sacrifice fly to put the Dragons up 3-0 in the first. The Dragons loaded the bases with none out in the third, but two popouts and a caught stealing ended the threat. PH drew a run back with a single and a double in the fourth, but a caught stealing drew the first out, while Ernstes scooped up an attempted squeeze and threw a runner out at home trying to score to quell the threat. The Dragons added two more runs in the fifth to go up 5-1. Oliver led off with a single. The next two batters were retired, but Maddie Engle drove in a run with a double. Reese Rosenbaum followed with an RBI single. PH had two hits in the sixth, but Cailyn Hurst came on in relief and quelled the threat, then retired the Arabians in order in the seventh. The Dragons are next in action Friday at Eastern Hancock.