New Palestine High School

The New Palestine baseball team opened its season Tuesday with a seventh-inning rally to beat Shelbyville 13-10 in a wild game. The Dragons and Golden Bears will complete their two-game home-and-home series at 5:30 p.m. Wednesday in the Dragons' home opener. The Dragons trailed 10-9 going into the final inning when they loaded the bases by drawing three consecutive one-out walks. Adam Rickey gave the Dragons a lead with a sharp two-run single to left. A walk to Blaine Nunnally again loaded the bases. With two outs, Ben Hirschy laced a single to left to plate two more runs and give the Dragons a 13-10 lead. Michael Thorpe fanned two Golden Bears and, after surrendering a two-out single, induced a groundout to end the game and nail down the victory. Thorpe allowed one earned run, five hits and struck out four in three relief innings to earn the victory. The game looked to be a pitcher's duel through three innings. Nunnally struck out eight, allowing two baserunners - one on a dropped third strike, one on an error - through three, while the Dragons had one hit. But the Dragons quickly broke the tie with a mammoth seven-run fourth. A walk, an error and a sacrifice bunt put two runners in scoring position. Gavin Neal plated a run with an infield single. Jacob Morris followed with a three-run homer to left to give the Dragons a 4-0 edge. The Dragons kept adding on, rekindling the rally with a single by Wyatt Mathies. Back-to-back errors by Shelbyville brought in two runs. Nunnally added another run with an RBI single up the middle to give the Dragons a 7-0 lead. But the lead didn't last long. Shelbyville responded with six hits, two walks and a hit batter to score eight runs in the bottom of the frame and go up 8-7. Six of the Golden Bears' runs came with two outs. Thorpe took over in the fifth and pitched around a two-out double. In the sixth, the Dragons briefly re-took the lead on an RBI single by Rickey and a bases-loaded walk to Nolan Cox. Shelbyville again re-took the lead with two runs on three hits and an error to go up 10-9, setting the stage for the Dragons' seventh-inning rallly. Shelbyville out-hit the Dragons 11-8. The Dragons' offense was led by Rickey, who was 2-for-5 with two runs and three RBI. Morris was also 2-for-4 with a three-run homer. Nunnally was 1-for-2 with a run, an RBI and three walks. Neal was 1-for-5 with a run and an RBI. Hirschy was 1-for-3 with two RBI. Mathies was 1-for-2 with a run. Cox walked twice, scored and drove in a run.