New Palestine High School

It takes everyone to win championships. The New Palestine softball team has lived by that mantra throughout its tournament run, and the seventh-ranked Dragons got big hits from throughout their lineup Tuesday to beat No. 8 Edgewood 7-1 to win their third straight regional championship. The Dragons (22-7) have now won 13 regional titles in a 23-year span. They will face Jennings County (23-8) at 11 a.m. Saturday in the first game of the semistate at Jasper. No. 2 Cathedral and Evansville Memorial are the other two teams in the semistate. In the regional, it was the Dragons' patience that set the table and the middle of the order who delivered. Edgewood took an early lead with a run on two hits in the first inning. But the lead was short-lived. Callie Cromwell and Payton Dye showed solid patience against the Mustangs' pitcher, drawing two walks to lead off the game. The next two batters made outs, but Claire Fitzgerald worked a walk to load the bases. Amber Hurt stepped in with the Dragons down 1-0. Two batters later, they'd be up 4-1. A pitch skipped away from the catcher. Cromwell saw it quickly, broke for home and beat the throw to bring home the first run. Hurt then roped the next pitch to the left-centerfield fence for a two-run double. Tessa Mohr then followed with a line-drive RBI single to right, plating Hurt and giving the Dragons a three-run lead. That would be plenty of cushion for Sadey Hughbanks, who would allow just two hits the remainder of the game. She allowed four hits and struck out eight in a complete-game win. She did not walk a batter. Edgewood had a one-out single in the third, but a strikeout and a lineout to Kenna Tweedy in right ended the opportunity. In the fourth and sixth, Hughbanks pitched around errors. She allowed a two-out single in the seventh, but then induced a grounder to Dye at third to end the game. NP was able to bring across insurance runs in its last three at-bats. In the fourth, Tweedy hit a slow grounder to second and reached on a two-base throwing error. Lyndsay Goodin followed with a walk. Tweedy tagged and moved to third on Cromwell's flyout to right, putting runners on the corners. The Dragons executed a perfect double-steal, with Tweedy beating the throw home, to make it a 5-1 game. In the fifth, Miller led off with a double. Cara Steele followed with a dribbler in front of home plate. The throw to first arrived at the same time as Steele and popped out of the first baseman's glove. Miller came around to score and give the Dragons a 6-1 lead. They added another run in the sixth, as Morgan Hutchinson led off with a pinch-hit triple into the leftfield corner and scored on Goodin's sacrifice fly to deep right. The Dragons outhit Edgewood 5-4. Hurt was 1-for-3 with a double, run and two RBI. Mohr was 1-for-3 with an RBI. Hutchinson was 1-for-1 with a triple and a run. Miller was 1-for-4 with a run and Fitzgerald 1-for-2 with a run. The Dragons' regional victory was their third win over a ranked team in four tournament games.