Softball sectionals: Lapel, Hamilton Heights repeat; New Pal ends drought; Mooresville

Another batch of sectional championship trophies were awarded Thursday night. Let's get caught up on the area's biggest from night four of the Indiana high school state softball tournament.

Healthy, confident & hungry: Center Grove claims sectional title. 'They're going to go far'

Regionals: Statewide pairings, schedule, scores

Pios encounter buzzsaw in S13 final: Center Grove 10, Mooresville 3

Mooresville coach Traci Ball "had a feeling" going into Thursday's Class 4A Sectional 13 championship game vs. Center Grove. Unlike their past couple meetings, the Trojans were at full strength (specifically at pitcher with both senior Riley Henson and freshman Taylor Barrett available) and brimming with confidence coming in. It's not that Ball was conceding defeat, but she understood her side would need to play a perfect game in order to have a chance.

The Pios played a darn-near flawless game, committing only one error and tallying five hits against CG's top two pitchers — and they still lost by seven, the victim of timely two-out inning by the opposition.

"We wanted to make (Center Grove) earn everything they got and they earned everything," Ball said, expressing pride in her team's effort and refusal to give up (that game very easily could've ended in five innings).

Mooresville's seniors — Sofia Guy, Grace Walker, Kayli Williams, Zoey Kugelman, Cayla Beasley and Madison Poulson — helped the program to its first sectional championship since 2007 last spring and ran it all the way to the semistate semifinals, where it lost to Pendleton Heights on a walk-off in the seventh.

Two seniors played from their freshmen year: Kugelman — "She has the heart of a bulldog," Ball said of the Franklin College commit, who homered in her final high school at bat — and Poulson — the Indiana State commit batted lead-off for two seasons and is a tremendous communicator, according to her coach. They helped the Pios to 107 wins over their four seasons.

Guy, who joined varsity as a sophomore, batted over .450 in her final season with 41 RBIs, 12 doubles and 10 home runs.

"I told the girls afterwards we have no reason to be down," Ball said. "I mean, I'm upset because we're losing our amazing seniors. They're role models and their leadership, what they bring to the table is going to be hard to replace."

Bulldogs' fifth-inning magic continues: Lapel 4, Alexandria-Monroe 2

When I caught up with Lapel a couple weeks ago, senior Krystin Davis and Karlie Jannings both pointed out their sectional was looking a lot tougher than it did at the beginning of the season.

They weren't kidding.

After rallying in the fifth to beat Frankton on Tuesday, the Bulldogs broke through in the fifth inning once again Thursday, this time with two runs in the visitors' half to beat Alexandria-Monroe in the Class 2A Sectional 40 championship game.

The teams traded runs in the first and third innings before Lapel broke through for a pair in the fifth. Paige Stires and Layla Gore reached on an error and a single, respectively, then freshman Addison Bodenhorn delivered the eventual game-winning hit, stroking a two-out base hit to right that scored both Stires and courtesy runner Avery Scruggs.

Eight Lapel players logged hits, led by Stires with a pair, but the Bulldogs were unable to fully crack Alexandria-Monroe freshman Brynlee Humphries, who allowed only one earned run on nine hits with four strikeouts and a couple walks.

Three different pitchers clocked innings for the Bulldogs. Jannings pitched two innings, allowing a couple runs on three hits with two strikeouts and two walks, Addison Bodenhorn did not allow a run on four hits over 3.1 innings (two strikeouts), then Ava Zdanowski closed it out with 1.2 hitless innings. Zdanowski, a freshman, re-entered for the 7th and issued a one-out walk, but bounced back with a strikeout and a pop out.

Huskies defend crown with big fourth inning: Hamilton Heights 7, Bishop Chatard 5

The host Trojans scored four runs in the top of the fourth, to take a 4-1 lead over Hamilton Heights, but the Huskies promptly responded with a six-run rally in the bottom half that was initiated by a lead-off error and featured a couple fielding miscues and three walks.

Kassidy Schackel contributed a sacrifice fly, Addie Doak put a ball in play that was mishandled and scored the game-tying run, then Lily Cash and Hannah Dent both contributed singles.

Cash finished with three hits of her team's four hits; Lily Roush struck out 11 over seven innings pitched.

Anni Felts logged three hits for Chatard, while Meg Jennings picked up three RBIs.

Hamilton Heights will travel to Beech Grove on Tuesday (Roush vs. Malone Moore should be quality entertainment).

Dragons end drought: New Palestine 10, Greenfield-Central 4

For the second straight night New Pal used a big first inning to take control. Last night it was against Pendleton Heights, tonight it was against Greenfield-Central, with the Dragons scoring three runs in the first (then another in the third, three in the fifth and three in the sixth) en route to their first sectional championship since 2019.

Katie Hirschy, Allie Blum, Sydney Oliver and Jersi Gross all had two hits; Paige Ernstes had one hit, two runs and two RBIs, and pitcher Courtney Study allowed only two earned runs on 10 hits with four strikeouts and zero walks.

The Dragons bullied their way through the Class 4A Sectional 9 tournament, playing with a particular determination (even the silly hats they traditionally wear on the bus and in the dugout for sectionals did little to undermine their intensity ahead of Wednesday's semifinal vs. Pendleton Heights.

"You want to be able to be intense and that's what we talk about," coach Ed Marcum said. "We've talked about tournament mentality. That's been our slogan since the beginning of the season and the girls have really embraced it."

(I also want to share this fun slash incredible fact about New Pal senior Courtney Study, who qualified for state in the mile one day before pitching a four-hit shutout in the sectional semifinals.)

On the other side, junior Leilani Forshey led Greenfield-Central with three hits and three RBIs. She finished the season with 13 home runs, seventh most in the state.

Greenfield-Central (12-12) is projected to return everyone from this year's team, a group which also includes sophomore standouts Savvanna Riall, Kristen Wineinger and Charlotte Riehle, plus pitchers Madysen Herbert, Addi Heacox and Ailea Dowdy.

"We're super excited for next year," Riall said. "We just have to build off this season."

Plymale outduels Crouch: East Central 2, Whiteland 1

Lexi Hatmaker's RBI double in the bottom of the third proved to be the difference as East Central pitcher Montana Plymale limited Whiteland to only one run on four hits with seven strikeouts and zero walks in the Class 4A Sectional 14 championship game.

Warriors freshman pitcher Jordyn Crouch was very good in the loss, surrendering just one earned run on five hits with three strikeouts and two walks. She boasted a sub-2.00 ERA in 89 innings pitched with 75 strikeouts.

Kiley Sullivan, Madison Myers, Gracee Whitaker and Kaelyn Putnam accounted for Whiteland's four hits.

East Central hosts Center Grove on Tuesday.

Friday's best offerings

• Sectional 8: Noblesville vs. Hamilton Southeastern

• Sectional 10: Cathedral vs. Lawrence North

• Sectional 41: Eastern Hancock vs. Northeastern

Follow Brian Haenchen on Twitter at @Brian_Haenchen.

This article originally appeared on Indianapolis Star: IHSAA softball sectionals: Wrapping up day four in Central Indiana