After Clark Pence slid across home plate Friday night to give Greenfield-Central a come-from-behind 4-3 victory over New Palestine, it looked like the Hoosier Heritage Conference baseball race was going to get really interesting -- especially when news of Mt. Vernon's 4-1 victory over Shelbyville came across.
But in the second games of their respective doubleheaders, NP won and MV was defeated, maintaining the Dragons' two-game lead in the HHC standings and therefore clinching at least a piece of the HHC title.
NP is now 11-1 heading into the final weekend of the regular season. MV is 9-3. Pendleton Heights, which was playing last-place Rushville Friday night, is also two games back of NP in the loss column. Essentially, should the Dragons win either of their two games Friday against MV, they will be outright HHC champs. An MV sweep would forge at least a two-way tie, and possibly a three-way tie if PH is able to win both of its games.
G-C, at 8-4, is in fourth place.
We will have a live broadcast of the MV-NP games at 5 p.m. Friday. Click here to listen!
In the first game between the Dragons and Cougars Friday night, Gibson's single scored Clark Pence with the winning run and handed the Dragons their first defeat in HHC play this season. G-C had come back from three one-run deficits -- answering solo homers by Brett Jackson and David Gunst in the first and fourth innings, respectively, with Stan Garner's RBI double in the first and his bases-loaded walk in the fifth. However, NP took a 3-2 lead in the sixth when Jacob Barnes' double plated Brady Thomas. G-C won the game with a double by Garrett Mitchell, a walk to Pence, a game-tying RBI hit by Curtiss Irving before Gibson hit a sinking line drive that bounced in front of Tyler Peper. Pence scored from second, beating the throw home to end the game.
Irving was the winning pitcher, scattering five hits. G-C had eight hits in the contest.
In the second game, Pence's two-run homer in the fifth gave G-C a 3-2 edge -- answering a solo homer by Reid Clark earlier in the game -- but the Dragons answered with four runs in the bottom of the inning and two more unearned runs in the sixth to win. Brian Page threw a complete game, striking out six. Nick Ulrey's first career homer tied the game at 3-3, and then Page kept the rally going with a double. The big blow was Brady Thomas' two-run single. He followed with another two-run hit in the next inning.
NP is now 19-3 overall and 11-1 in HHC play. G-C is 12-8 and 8-4 in conference play.
Listen to the archive HERE!
MV won its first game 4-1, but fell 10-1 to Shelbyville in the nightcap Friday night.
In softball Friday night, NP swept Connersville, winning the opening game 4-0 and the nightcap 22-4 in five innings.
In the opener, Audrey East had a double and drove in two runs, while Katie Prosser and Julie Moore had single RBI. The Dragons scored twice in the first and never looked back. Lizzie Garrison allowed four hits and struck out eight in the pitching shutout. In the second game, NP scored 13 runs in the second inning -- and three in its other three at-bats -- to pour it on. Erin Lehman was 4-4 with five runs scored and a solo homer. Audrey East was 4-4 with two homers and seven RBI. Julie Moore was 4-4 with three RBI, Clare Myers, Alexa Cavin and Liza Fiers all had three hits each. Rachel Vawter and Candice Cooper combined to scatter eight hits in the pitching victory. Vawter got the win.
Also, on Thursday, Mt. Vernon won the HHC boys track and field title.
No comments:
Post a Comment