Despite rainouts and continuous wet weather, all district baseball tournaments were able to be completed over the last two days.
Dixie Heights claimed the 34th District title on Wednesday while Highlands and Walton-Verona took home hardware on Thursday.
Here’s how the action unfolded:
36th District Championship
Highlands 3, Newport Central Catholic 2
Issac Niemann’s walk-off RBI single in the seventh lifted Highlands to a 14th consecutive district championship on Thursday at Tower Park.
Knotted at 2-2 in the bottom of the seventh, Noah Lahner reached on a single to left field to open the frame. Arthur Kirk came in to pinch-run and was sacrificed over to second on a Grayson Lanich sac bunt. On a 3-2 pitch, Niemann slotted a ball into left field to score Kirk and end the contest.
In the pitchers duel between Highlands’ Brooks Hendrix and NewCath’s TJ Ruschmann, the two kept hitters at bay for the majority. Hendrix allowed four hits, two earned runs, walked one and struck out nine in his complete game effort. Ruschmann allowed six hits, three earned runs, walked one and struck out six in also pitching a complete game.
Highlands struck first with two runs in the bottom of the third as Kai Anderson knocked an RBI triple and later scored on a Michael Tincher groundout.
NewCath answered right back in the top of the fourth on a Liam Horan RBI groundout and Mitchell Franzen scoring on a passed ball. The Thoroughbreds were unable to get a runner past first base from that point.
Hendrix led Highlands at the plate with two hits, one of them a double.
Both teams will now await Friday’s 9th Region tournament draw to find out their next opponent for the region tournament that begins on Monday at Thomas More Stadium in Florence.
32nd District Championship
Walton-Verona 4, Simon Kenton 1
Bronson Corpus hit a 3-run homer and struck out 12 batters as the Bearcats won their first district title since 2021 and snapped Simon Kenton’s district title streak at four.
Corpus’ 3-run bomb came in the bottom of the third, helping his own cause as he pitched 6.2 innings, allowed six hits with an earned run and three walks with his 12 punch outs.
William Hurles and Kainan Held had two hits apiece for the Bearcats, both scoring on the Corpus homer.
Simon Kenton scratched a run across in the fifth on a Charlie Overton RBI single with two outs and the bases loaded, but the threat was immediately ended as a runner was thrown out at home on the same play.
The Pioneers had runners on second and third in the sixth, but Corpus got a strikeout to end the threat.
William Hurles added an RBI double for the Bearcats for an insurance run in the sixth.
Both advance to the 8th Region tournament, scheduled to begin Sunday. Walton-Verona will host their first round opponent while Simon Kenton will have to play on the road. The tournament then shifts to Thomas More Stadium in Florence for the semifinals on Wednesday and championship on Thursday.
34th District Championship
Dixie Heights 9, St. Henry 0
The Colonels jumped out to a 7-0 lead after three innings en route to a sixth straight district title.
Oliver Linstruth, Jonathan Mello and Austin Krohmer collected two hits apiece in the victory while four Colonel pitchers combined for the three-hit shutout. Will Steczynski added two RBI.
St. Henry was able to put eight runners on base as they drew four walks and a hit by pitch, but couldn’t find any timely hitting, stranding them all.
Both will await their opponent for Monday during Friday’s 9th Region tournament draw set for noon.