As a kid, Highlands High School baseball coach Brian Benzinger shagged fly balls off the bat of his brother Todd Benzinger, a former Major League Baseball player with the Cincinnati Reds and others.
“My father played college football. He was an avid sports fan,” Benzinger said. “When we worked on baseball, he pitched to my brother and I was in the field. It’s definitely an early baseball memory.”
Brian Benzinger, like his brother, starred in baseball at New Richmond High School in Ohio. Brian later played collegiately at Morehead State and for a time was the program’s all-time hits leader. His college coach was Steve Hamilton, one of 13 athletes to have played in both Major League Baseball and the National Basketball Association.
Adding to the major league connection is Highlands senior pitcher Garrett Wiggins. From an early age, he played catch with his father, former big leaguer Scott Wiggins, a one-time pitcher for the Toronto Blue Jays.
But that’s not all. Bluebirds junior Finn Bouldin’s grandfather Carl Bouldin pitched in the majors for the Washington Senators.
Other Bluebirds have family members who’ve been in the game at lower levels. Senior Nolan Schwalbach’s dad played college ball and was signed by the Reds before being released. There are baseball coaches’ sons, including Highlands’ leading hitter, junior Brooks Hendrix, who was named after major leaguer Brooks Robinson, one of his dad’s favorite players. Kris Hendrix assists Benzinger, who has a son named Brett, in honor of another great third baseman of the past, George Brett.
With the first day of the KHSAA Baseball State Tournament coming up on Thursday, all the bluebloods at Highlands and their teammates took the field Monday for the first time since beating Beechwood in the 9th Region championship game. Coach Benzinger eased his players into the run-up to Friday’s game against South Warren by staging a light-hearted workout that helps tighten the screws while keeping the team loose.
“We hadn’t practiced in three days. I thought we’d do this drill where the guys all run around,” Benzinger said. “It works on hitting, baserunning and fielding but we hadn’t done it since preseason. I needed to call it something, and our team manager came up with the name Bluebird Rush.”
Seems fitting.
With their rich baseball lineage, the Bluebirds have been a blur this year. And now, they’re sprinting toward what could be a magical finish. After a 3-4-1 start against a brutal schedule, the Bluebirds are 24-3, stacking up winning streaks of seven, seven, and now nine, bringing their record to 27-7-1.
The Bluebirds face 4th Region champion South Warren (30-8) on Friday in a 1:30 p.m. state first-round contest. The game is at Kentucky Proud Park in Lexington. The winner moves on to Saturday’s quarterfinals. The semifinals are June 13 followed by the June 14 final.
“Tuesday, we were back into more traditional practice stuff,” coach Benzinger said. “We’ll have three days of that. The guys like practicing. They love baseball. It’s in their blood.”
Legacy makes for nice nostalgia, but it doesn’t win baseball games. Performance does, and the Bluebirds bring the numbers. They carry a team batting average of .342, ranking ninth in the state. The Bluebirds boast 12 batters hitting .300 or better. They have a team ERA of 2.07, ranking 19th statewide. Nine of their 13 pitchers have sub-2.00 ERAs.
“I think a big thing for us is we just play baseball with no stress,” Schwalbach said.
With all their talent and those major league genes, the Bluebirds are back in the state baseball tournament for the first time since 2018. It’s the first trip for coach Benzinger who took over this season for retired coach Jeremy Baioni.
Before Highlands, Benzinger spent 20 years leading New Richmond, racking up 376 wins, 12 league titles and three district crowns, but never a state championship. After one year as Highlands’ freshman coach and a regular season under his belt as varsity head man, Benzinger is in position to reach some firsts.
“I knew I had more gas in the tank when I left New Richmond,” said Benzinger, who exited the baseball program in 2018 but still teaches at the school. “My oldest son was about to play college baseball at Thomas More and I wasn’t going to miss that.”
He’s back and so are the Bluebirds. Highlands has never won a state baseball championship. Just four northern Kentucky schools in two cities have won crowns since the tournament began in 1940. They are Newport, Newport Central Catholic, Holmes and Covington Catholic.
Highlands is eager to etch its name and Fort Thomas into that exclusive list. If the Bluebirds win a state title, it would not only be their first, but it will also end a drought. It’s been 23 years since a northern Kentucky baseball team won it all. CovCath last brought home the state championship trophy in 2002.
Pedigree may have helped set the stage, but execution will write the final chapter for Highlands, which has earned its shot.
“We have super smart players. We’ve got hitters and we’ve got pitchers,” Benzinger said. “We have a sophomore catcher, Kai Anderson, who is amazing at calling pitches. He studies the hitters during games. It’s really helped our pitchers.”
The Bluebirds’ team ERA last season was a respectable 4.02 but they have cut that number nearly in half with virtually a new staff. Highlands’ hurlers rank fifth statewide in team strikeouts with 9.1 per game. Leading the way are senior starters Wiggins (6-1, 1.39 ERA), Jacob Robinson (5-0, 0.94 ERA), Adam Forton (7-1, 1.59 ERA) and Iain Carner (1.53 ERA). Junior Patrick Davidson (1.81 ERA) has also been sharp.
Wiggins is an off-speed-dominant pitcher with horizontal movement on his slider, a deep dropping curve and just enough giddy-up on his fastball. He has a lower arm slot which gives him action on all three pitches. “The key for me is getting ahead in the count so I can keep using my off-speed stuff and not be forced to throw my fastball,” Wiggins said.
Left fielder Hendrix, the 9th Region tournament MVP, is in his first year at the varsity level. He hits second in the batting order and ranks seventh in the state with a .578 batting average. He’s fourth statewide with 17 doubles and has struck out just three times in 102 plate appearances.
“I felt like I could play varsity last year,” said Hendrix, who used that as motivation. “We started working on hitting in August and never stopped, so I think that helped, too.”
Schwalbach, a lead-off-hitting center fielder, is second with a .413 average. He leads with four home runs. Next are cleanup-hitting Carner (.360), Forton (.356) and Robinson (.318), all seniors.
“I think we were overlooked at the beginning of the season because we lost 13 seniors,” Benzinger said. “We had just a few starters coming back and a few guys who threw some innings. Our pitchers did a lot of work in the offseason and crafted their abilities. Our hitters needed to limit strikeouts. We focused on being better in two-strike counts this year and I think we’re now one of the best.”
South Warren enters the state tournament with 12 wins in the last 14 games. The Spartans hold a .335 team batting average and pack more power than Highlands. South Warren also carries a low team ERA of 2.27, but the Spartans don’t get nearly as many strikeouts as Highlands.
South Warren’s ace, Mikey Coradini, is a crafty left-hander with a 9-1 record and a 1.32 ERA. He’s a big-game arm that Highlands will have to solve. There’s also Jacob Lobb (4-1, 1.38 ERA) and Austin Allen (5-5, 3.04 ERA).
Ethan Reynolds, a nationally ranked prospect heading to Western Kentucky, missed time with a broken wrist but still hit .513 in limited action. Griffin Rardin (.490, 19 doubles, 5 triples, 5 homers) adds another heavy bat to the lineup. The Region 4 tournament MVP is heading to Shelton State.
Coach Benzinger knows the Spartans’ ability to grind out wins make them a legitimate threat.
“We are very likely facing Coradini, and I think we’re prepared,” the coach said. “We knocked a left-hander out in the second inning against Dixie Heights in the 9th Region semis. Had an intrasquad scrimmage Tuesday and we threw left-handers.”
Friday’s winner plays either McCracken County or Lyon County in Saturday’s quarterfinals.
“I feel confident in our guys,” Wiggins said. “We’ve been pretty good on the mound and we were leading the state in hits. We put the ball in play and teams make errors, so I like our chances.”