The Class 3A IHSAA State Championship will be between New Palestine and Yorktown.
Take a look at the schools’ postseason paths to the State Final.
New Palestine
The New Palestine Dragons will look to make it three State Championships in a row. This year the Dragons are 28-3 overall, and they went 7-0 in Hoosier Heritage Conference play.
New Palestine cruised through their Sectional as they put the run rule into effect in every game. In the first round, they beat Beech Grove 21-1 in five and then defeated Connersville 11-1 in five. In the Sectional Championship, the Dragons defeated Indian Creek 11-0 in five innings.
In the Sectional Semifinal, the Blackcats beat Steeleville 11-2 and then took on Elverado in the Sectional Championship. They won with a score of 14-0 to advance to the Super-Sectionals.
The Dragons continued their run-rule streak in the Regional, as they took down Northview 11-1 in six innings.
Once again, New Palestine run-ruled their next two opponents in Semi-State. In the first round, the Dragons defeated Silver Creek 10-0.
New Palestine then took on Danville to advance to the State Final game.
With two outs in the top of the first New Palestine’s E O’Connor homered to center giving the Dragons an early 1-0 lead.
Danville would answer back in the bottom half of the first taking advantage of two errors. An RBI single from Abigail Yarnell highlighted the two-run inning.
New Palestine led off the second with a solo shot from Tatum Biddle to tie the game at 2-2. Singles from Kinsey Mitchell, Emma Tucher, and Kendal Calvert set up an RBI single from Jaylin Calvert to take the lead. Then a fielder’s choice gave the Dragons a 4-2 lead over Danville.
In the fourth, New Palestine would put three more runs up. Back-to-back singles from Emma Tucher and Kendal Calvert started the inning off. The inning featured a two-RBI single from Macy Miller.
The Dragons then tacked on another three runs in the fifth inning. The fifth started with two singles from Raegan Hiatt and Kinsey Mitchell; they advanced to scoring position on a sac bunt from Emma Tucher. Kendal Calvet tripled to give New Palestine a 9-2 lead and was followed by a sac fly to center off the bat of Jaylin Calvert.
In the seventh, New Palestine scored their final two runs. Raegan Hiatt reached on an error and came around to score on a triple from Kinsey Mitchell. The Dragons would take a 12-2 lead on a ground out scoring Mitchell.
New Palestine’s pitcher Sam Booe was able to overcome the first inning as she went seven strong innings allowing only three hits, no earned runs and striking out seven.
Yorktown
The Yorktown Tigers have had a great postseason run as they are 18-8 overall this season.
The Tigers defeated New Castle in the first round of Sectional play winning 10-1. In the Sectional Championship, Yorktown took on Hamilton Heights and won 8-7.
In the Regional Yorktown faced Bellmont and shut them out winning 6-0.
Yorktown would then take on Hanover Central in the first game of Semi-State. The Tigers defeated Hanover Central 15-3 to advance and play Benton Central in the Semi-State Final.
In the top of the first inning, Yorktown led off with a double from Lexi Robertson and was driven in on a single from Skyler Davis. The Tigers would score their second run as Savannah Baker singled to right.
Benton Central responded in the bottom half with a solo home run from Charity Gerlach.
Yorktown was able to regain their two-run lead in the top of the second. Reagan Cox singled to lead off the inning, and she would later score on an error to lead 3-1.
Benton Central would tie the game in the bottom of the fifth inning, as Kimberly Cummings singled. Then Cummings advanced to second when a pitch hit Kennedy Tolen. The runners both advanced into scoring position as Megan Asher laid down a sac bunt. With two outs, Charity Gerlach delivered a two-RBI single tying the game at 3-3.
The Tigers would regain the lead in the sixth inning. Delaney Boyd singled with one out to start things for Yorktown. With two outs, Lexi Robertson singled to put runners at first and third. An error allowed Yorktown to take a 4-3 lead as Boyd scored.
Yorktown’s pitcher Kaylyn Coahran was able to shut the door on Benton Central in the final two frames. Coahran went seven innings allowing five hits, three runs while striking out ten.