PENDLETON — With a split of Friday’s Hoosier Heritage Conference baseball doubleheader with New Palestine, Pendleton Heights goes into the final weekend of the season tied atop the conference standings.

With two games remaining in league play, Pendleton Heights and Greenfield- Central are tied for the Hoosier Heritage Conference lead with 9-3 records. Pendleton Heights travels to Delta for a 5:30 p.m. doubleheader on Friday. Greenfield-Central is at Shelbyville for two games Friday. Delta is 6-6 in conference games. Shelbyville is 3-9.

To earn the split with the Dragons, the Arabians had to put together a three-run, fifth-inning rally in the second game of the twin bill. It was the only inning they scored in the two games.

[sc:text-divider text-divider-title=”Story continues below gallery” ]Click here to purchase photos from this gallery

New Palestine won the first contest 5-0. Pendleton, down 1-0 in fifth, came back to earn a 3-2 victory in the nightcap.

“A win is a win, and we’ll take them anyway we can get them,” Pendleton Heights coach Travis Keesling said. “This was one of those that we had to keep grinding out.”

To win the second game, the Arabians got contributions from a player they weren’t sure would be available to play.

During Game 1, starting catcher Ben Richards was struck by a foul ball while in the Arabians’ dugout.

The game was delayed until a trainer came on site to take a look at the junior backstop.

Richards was able to go, and when he singled up the middle with two outs in the fifth inning, two runners scored to give Pendleton Heights a 3-1 lead.

“He’s a tough kid,” Keesling said. “We put it in the hands of our trainer, who is great, Chris Chambers. He ran him through a gamut of tests and made sure he was good to go.”

Richards was hit during the fourth inning of the first game.

“I think he would’ve stayed and played the rest of the first game if we let him, but we would rather play it safe than sorry,” Keesling added.

Game 1 was all New Palestine lefty ace Jack Walker.

Walker was dominant in the opener. He had a no-hitter for five and two-thirds innings and finished with 13 strikeouts, tying his season-high in strikeouts set May 3 in a win against Delta. It was his third-straight double-figure strikeout game. He fanned 10 against Greenfield-Central on April 26.

“Jack Walker pitched the best game he’s pitched in high school,” New Palestine coach Shawn Lyons said. “He had command of his fastball. He could throw both sides of the plate. He was economical.”

“He pitched an amazing game,” Keesling said of the Dragons pitcher. “He mixed up his pitches when he needed to, and he reared back and fired when he needed to.”

Walker’s performance in the opener put an extra emphasis on the Arabians to grab the second.

Had the Arabians not won the second game, both New Palestine and Pendleton Heights would be going into this weekend one game behind Greenfield-Central.

“We had to win that second game. If we didn’t win that second game, we put ourselves in a big hole,” Keesling said. “That would have put us in a bind.”

In the go-ahead inning, only Richards’ ball was hit hard.

With one out in the inning, a walk, errant pickoff throw and error put runners on the corners. Kamden Earley laid down a bunt single to tie the game, 1-1. After Dragons pitcher Zach Neligh fanned Evan Douglas for the second out, Richards lined a single to center field to score two runs.

Pendleton Heights had just two hits prior to the two in the fifth. Douglas singled in two previous at-bats.

In the opener, also in the fifth inning, Pendleton Heights’ Dalton Mollenkopf broke up Walker’s no-hitter with a two-out double. Cole Miller added a single for the Arabians’ only other hit.

[sc:pullout-title pullout-title=”Linescores” ][sc:pullout-text-begin]

Game 1

New Palestine 5, Pendleton Heights 0

NP (12-10, 7-4);211;000;1;—;5;7;1

PH (12-7, 8-3);000;000;x;—;0;2;2

WP: Jack Walker. LP: Luke Hargrave.

2B: Zach Neligh, Noah Mack (NP); Dalton Mollenkopf (PH). RBI: Noah Mack 2, Jack Walker, Colby Jenkins, Grant Wiegand (NP).

Notable: Noah Mack 4-for-4, 2B, R, 2 RBI; Jack Walker WP, 7 IP, 2 H, 13 K, RBI (NP).

–

Game 2

Pendleton Heights 3, New Palestine 2

PH (12-7, 8-3);000;030;0;—;3;4;0

NP (12-10, 7-4);001;010;0;—;2;7;3

WP: Walker Stull. LP: Zach Neligh.

2B: Jack Walker, Grant Wiegand (NP). RBI: Jack Walker, Jacob Bain (NP); Ben Richards 2, Kamden Earley (PH).

Notable: Grant Wiegand 2-for-4.

[sc:pullout-text-end]