Penn softball walks-off for NIC title as New Prairie baseball tops Kingsmen in rare twin bill

MISHAWAKA —It’s rare for one school to be able to clinch softball and baseball conference championships on the same day and both at home. Typically, when two schools face each other, the varsity contests are at opposite locations.

Due to Mother Nature, though, Penn had a chance to win Northern Indiana Conference titles in both sports Monday at home. The Kingsmen’s baseball game was supposed to be at New Prairie, but wet conditions moved the contest to Penn’s turf field.

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While both teams were ready to celebrate, only one did.

Penn softball won a thriller over New Prairie, with Ava Zachary’s RBI single clinching a 5-4 victory in nine innings. Less than 600 feet away, the Kingsmen baseball team missed its chance to be outright NIC champs, dropping a 7-4 decision to the Cougars to put them in a three-way tie in the loss column with Mishawaka Marian and South Bend Adams atop the conference. Marian and Adams still have one NIC game left each this week.

Softball: Ava Zachary the hero as Penn clinches outright NIC title

The battle between the reigning Class 3A state champion Cougars (17-5, 9-2 NIC) and 4A champion Kingsmen (19-6, 10-0 NIC) lived up to the hype.

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A marathon game reached its crescendo in the ninth, as the top of Penn's lineup strung together two singles and a walk with two outs. Izabella Hanna started the rally, Camile Biever kept the line moving and Zachary sent the folks in black and gold home happy with her single to center field.

“Just the great talent we have up here — you look at the multiple state championships we’ve had, from Bremen (2A, 2019), Saint Joseph (3A, 2022), to us and New Prairie — it’s just been incredible the past couple of years, so of course we’re absolutely proud of this win,” Penn coach Beth Zachary said.

It was back-and-forth with Penn grabbing a 1-0 lead in the second before New Prairie scored four in the fourth. The Cougar runs came via an RBI double from Ella Chelminiak, a sacrifice fly from Ava Geyer and Addi Luther reaching from a Kingsmen error that allowed two runs to score.

A couple misplays in left field in the bottom of the fifth, though, allowed Penn to tie the game. Both officially went down as hits, as a Hanna double and Biever inside-the-park home run knotted the contest at four.

New Prairie had several chances to score in the ensuing innings, including loading the bases with no outs in the sixth. Penn junior Olivia Signorino pitched out of the mess she created, though, to keep her team in the game.

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Signorino also pitched around New Prairie getting a runner to third in the seventh inning and runners at second and third in the eighth. The junior pitched the final five innings after Aubrey Zachary went the first four.

“That’s exactly what we do well here: we have a pitching staff, not just one pitcher,” Beth Zachary said. “We knew we were going to Olivia, but we were also ready to go to Sarah (Gentry), too, if we needed to, and then we had another pitcher after her. … You can tell that the girls just trust each other.”

It’s a tough loss for New Prairie, who would’ve shared NIC honors with Penn had it won. The Cougars play Lakeshore (Mich.) Thursday before they begin its 3A state title defense next Monday against South Bend Riley in a Sectional 19 opening round game.

“This definitely gets you into the competition mode,” New Prairie coach Derek Hicks said. “You’re going to be ready for anything you face. They’re state champions, too, so it’s going to be hard to find a better team to go up against. We also know any team can beat you on any given day.”

Baseball: Pitching, timely hitting leads New Prairie to win

New Prairie (18-5, 7-3 NIC) played a throwback-type game Monday, using small ball to score the bulk of its runs.

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Still playing as the designated home team despite the venue change, the Cougars went up, 2-0, on a pair of RBI groundouts in the bottom of the first, one from junior Jordan Davis and the other from senior Tyson Greenwood. It’s third run was via an RBI single by senior Colin Wind, which snuck its way into right field and allowed Beau Kmiecik to score.

The big frame for the Cougars was the bottom of the fourth. With the bases loaded and two outs, sophomore Reed Robinson had an infield single, scoring Joe Kinney. A wild pitch from Penn’s Dawson French in the next at-bat allowed two runs to score. Davis capped the rally with an RBI single to center, pushing the Cougar lead to 7-1 at the time.

That was plenty of run support for Greenwood, who surrendered four runs in six innings pitched. He allowed two unearned runs to score without recording an out to start the seventh, but Kinney came in and finished the game off for New Prairie.

“We feel good when Tyson’s on the mound against anybody, and we know Joe can come in and close the door like he did,” New Prairie coach Mark Schellinger said. “I really liked our approach at the plate – you don’t see Penn give up seven runs a lot, especially four in an inning. To put that on and jump out early was, obviously, a huge part of the game.”

Penn (17-8, 8-2 NIC) now has to wait to see how Marian and Adams fare in its final conference games to see if it’ll be one, two or three teams sharing the NIC crown. Both the Knights and Eagles were scheduled to play Monday against Glenn and Bremen, respectively, but those contests were postponed to later this week due to the weather. The reschedule dates have yet to be announced.

“We just have to keep working on the things we’ve been working on, and that’s kind of what we do,” Penn coach Greg Dikos said. “We’ll hopefully learn from these mistakes. We didn’t deserve to win; they outplayed us. Sitting where we’re at, for someone to outplay us is disheartening. Hopefully, we can regroup and come back.”

This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Penn softball wins NIC, while New Prairie baseball prevents Kingsmen title