Baseball Preview: New Palestine Dragons vs. Mooresville Pioneers
The New Palestine Dragons are on the road again on Saturday to play the Mooresville Pioneers at 11:00 a.m. Both teams come into the matchup bolstered by wins in their previous matches.
New Palestine is on a roll after a high-stakes playoff matchup on Monday. They came out on top in a nail-biter against Cathedral and snuck past 6-5. Six seems to be a good number for New Palestine as the team scooped up a win with the same number of runs in their previous game.
Jacob Morris made a splash no matter where he played. He pitched 2.2 innings while giving up no earned runs off two hits. Morris has been nothing but reliable on the mound: he hasn't given up more than two hits in three consecutive pitching appearances. Morris was also big at the plate, scoring a run and stealing a base while going 2-for-4.
Morris wasn't the only one making solid contact as five players wound up with at least one hit. One of them was Wyatt Matheis, who scored a run while going 2-for-2.
Meanwhile, Mooresville faced Franklin Community in a battle between two of the state's top teams on Monday. Mooresville blew past Franklin Community 12-3. Mooresville might be getting used to big wins seeing as the team's won ten contests by six runs or more this season.
Like New Palestine, Mooresville also got a great game from a two-way player: Hogan Denny. On the mound, he pitched three innings while giving up no earned runs off two hits. Denny was also stellar in the batter's box, scoring a run and stealing two bases while getting on base in four of his five plate appearances.
In other batting news, Kaleb Kestler was a standout: he scored three runs while getting on base in all four of his plate appearances. Another player making a difference was Deklan Thompson, who scored a run while going 2-for-4.
New Palestine has been performing incredibly well recently as they've won nine of their last ten games, which provided a nice bump to their 25-5 record this season. As for Mooresville, the victory (which was their fifth in a row) raised their record to 30-3.
Saturday's match might come down to which pitcher can control the ball better. New Palestine has hit smart this season, having averaged an OBP of .434. However, it's not like Mooresville struggles in that department as they've averaged .435. With both teams so capable at the plate, fans should be ready for an impressive hitting performance. Come back here after the game to get an analysis of the match and other baseball content.
Article generated by infoSentience based on data entered on MaxPreps
