New Palestine High School

The New Palestine baseball team had an offensive explosion Saturday to win the Lebanon Invitational championship. The Dragons won two games via the mercy rule, blanking Guerin Catholic 10-0 in the semifinal and beating Ben Davis 13-1 in the championship game. Against Guerin, Michael Thorpe threw a four-hit shutout. He struck out two in a complete game, throwing only 43 pitches in five innings and facing two batters more than the minimum. The Dragons played small ball to take a 1-0 lead in the second. Brock Whitaker hit a leadoff double, went to third on Adam Rickey's sacrifice and scored on a groundout by Gavin Neal. The Dragons extended the lead in the fourth. Whitaker walked, leading to a run on Neal's RBI double. Nolan Cox followed with a run-scoring double. After a single by Nick Deering put runners on the corners, Cox scored on an error on an errant throw from the catcher trying to nail Deering stealing second, putting NP up 4-0. The Dragons sealed the game with a six-run fifth. Wes Stiller walked, followed by Jackson Kamp's single and a run-scoring double by Whitaker. After a walk to Rickey, Cox hit a two-run bases-loaded single to extend the lead to seven. Deering plated another run with a squeeze bunt. Back-to-back walks loaded the bases and brought in a run when Stiller was hit by a pitch. Kamp's second single of the inning plated the 10th run. Kamp was 2-for-4 with an RBI. Whitaker was 2-for-3 with two runs and an RBI. Cox was 2-for-3 with two runs and three RBI. Deering was 1-for-2 with an RBI and Neal 1-for-3 with a run and two RBI. The Dragons also needed only five innings to down Ben Davis in the championship game. Brayden Marrow pitched a complete game, striking out seven and scattering four hits in five innings. Stiller started the day with a first-inning solo homer. The Dragons extended the lead to 6-0 in the second when Cox hit a three-run homer and Stiller followed with a two-run single, the Dragons' sixth hit of the inning. In the third, Whitaker doubled and scored on Neal's single. The Dragons plated six more runs in the fourth. Morwick led off with a walk and scored on Stiller's double. Wyatt Mathies followed with an RBI double. Whitaker had an infield hit to put two runners on. Jacob Morris plated a run with a single, followed by a two-run double by Ben Hirschy and an RBI groundout by Henry Thorpe. BD scored its lone run in the fifth on a wild pitch. The Dragons improved to 5-3 with the tourney title. They are back in action Monday at home against Whiteland.