New Palestine High School

The Class 3A No. 6 New Palestine baseball team used strong pitching and some timely hits to beat Shelbyville 4-1 Thursday afternoon. In a game rescheduled from Wednesday due to inclement weather, the two teams played their second straight low-scoring game and split their series to open conference play. Jacob Morris pitched five scoreless innings, allowing one hit and striking out four, to earn the victory. Jesse Isaacs nailed down the save over the final two innings, scattering two hits and fanning two. The Dragons struck first without a hit in the opening inning. Morris drew a one-out walk. Two more walks followed to Jackson Kamp and Liam Atkinson to load the bases. A wild pitch brought Morris home, but the Dragons were unable to add on. NP did add on in the third. Morris again drew a one-out walk. After a flyout to center, Gavin Neal lined a shot to left-centerfield. It bounced over the leftfielder's head for a double, plating Morris to put NP up 2-0 with the game's first hit. The Dragons had hits in the fourth and fifth, but stranded the runners. Meanwhile, the Dragons' defense was superb. Morris turned a doubleplay on a high chopper up the middle in the third. In the fifth, a leadoff double and a walk put two Golden Bears on, but a diving backhand play by Kingston Hedges on a grounder toward the middle turned into a 4-6-3 doubleplay and a strikeout ended the threat. Isaacs came on to pitch the sixth. A leadoff walk and an infield hit put two runners aboard. Trase Quillen made a diving play in short centerfield to rob Shelbyville's Aiden Smith of a hit, and flipped to second for a big first out. A sacrifice fly did plate a run, but Isaacs induced another flyball to center to end the threat. In the bottom of the inning, the Dragons added two runs when pinch-hitter Ethan Nunnally was hit by a pitch. Pinch-hitter Holden Hughes then laced a double down the leftfield line, putting Dragons on second and third. One run came home on a wild pitch, the second on Morris' sacrifice fly, extending the lead to 4-1. Isaacs pitched around a one-out single, striking out two Golden Bears to nail down the game and the save in the seventh. The Dragons outhit Shelbyville 4-3. Neal had two hits, going 2-for-3 witih a double and an RBI. Hughes and Rigg Mahurin had the other two hits. Morris walked twice, scored twice and drove in a run with a sacrifice fly. The Dragons are now 2-1 on the season (1-1 HHC). They next play at 11 a.m. Saturday at Batesville.