Highlands rallies in final at-bat, walks off North Hardin to reach first state semifinal

Sometimes it’s just a matter of putting the ball in play.

Trailing 2-1 and down to their final three outs, Highlands’ softball team did just that and eventually came away with a 3-2, 8-inning victory over North Hardin in Saturday’s KHSAA state tournament quarterfinals at John Cropp Stadium in Lexington. The win gets them to the semifinals on Friday.

“This is the furthest the program has ever been,” Highlands coach Milt Horner said. “These seniors have worked so hard, some of them are playing their fifth game on this field.”

Cam Markus delivered the walk-off hit in the bottom of the eighth, singling to center to score Payton Brown from second, who was met with hugs and a celebratory huddle after running home safely.

PHOTOS: Slideshow provided by Charles Bolton

Full team effort

One through nine, Highlands got it done today. They were down to their No. 6-8 hitters in the lineup in the bottom of the seventh and the bottom half delivered to tie the game up at two. Kate Class started with an infield single and then scored on Allison Meyers’ sac bunt all the way from first. In attempting to get to third on the same play, a Trojans throw ended up in the outfield allowing Class to score the game-tying run.

“We’ve got a lot of speed and Kate hustling that out was just huge,” Horner said. “Then on Allison’s bunt, we saw the third baseman was crashing so hard and didn’t have a chance to get back. Left fielder was slow getting there, we practiced that play and Kate got there and they threw it away.”

The 6-9 hitters in the lineup collected four of the Bluebirds nine hits in the game, two from the bat of Katherine Heilman.

“A lot of teams it’s usually their first four or five hitters are good and then it kind of tails off,” Brown said. “I feel like our whole lineup, we have confidence in every one of them. I knew we were even in the lower half of the lineup they were going to get the job done.”

“Everyone is picking up someone,” Markus said.

No. 2 hitter Morgan Pompilio got the Bluebirds on the board in the fourth with a bunt single that was perfectly placed between short and third, allowing Layla Zepf to score from second base. Eight of the nine Highlands batters had a hit on the day.

Brown gets her first hit

John Cropp hadn’t been too friendly to senior Payton Brown. In her fourth trip here in the last five years, the Bluebirds all-time leading hitter in many categories had yet to collect a hit in 15 at-bats. Her first one came at the most opportune time, a leadoff single to start the bottom of the eighth inning.

“Four times here and had never gotten a hit here,” Brown said. “I knew I needed it to get done for the team. I told everyone it’s just a stupid game and it doesn’t matter and have fun. I went up there with that mindset and to hit the ball hard on the ground and if I did that I’d get on.”

She then stole second on a bang-bang play.

“It was close, but I truly think I got around it and the ump made a good call,” Brown said.

Markus’ hit went to right center and Brown raced home for the game-winner. Two seniors delivering the two biggest hits in program history.

Almost peed her pants

Cam Markus was so excited after the ball left her bat in the eighth for the game-winner.

“I felt like I was peeing my pants,” Markus said.

She was due. She had put three balls in play that were tracked down by North Hardin left fielder Tykeria Davis, the third one tracked down in the gap by Davis.

“I was hitting that girl the whole time, I just couldn’t get it past the left fielder, she did great,” Markus said. “My goal was to pull it the other way this time.”

She decided to go the other way in the eighth and it paid off. Initially, it wasn’t planned out to go like that.

“Interestingly with Payton on second and nobody out, I initially gave her a bunt sign,” Horner said. ‘Their third baseman played 20-feet away, so I told her to step out and get the hit. She’s hit the ball hard all year long, has a bunch of RBI and she’s in the four-spot for a reason.”

Dixon battles

It wasn’t her signature double-digit strikeout performance, but Kaitlyn Dixon was brilliant once again in the circle. She allowed just two hits and both runs were unearned on an error that allowed to score two in the fourth.

She struck out five, walked one and hit a batter on 114 pitches, 76 of them for strikes.

“She didn’t have her best stuff today, but held them to no earned runs and fought through it,” Horner said. “Strike zone was a little tighter than it was on Thursday, a lot of pitches that were strikes then, but she fought through it. Defense played great except for one play. Give them credit, they put the ball in play.”

Through 15 innings in the tournament, Dixon has allowed just three hits, struck out 20, walked one, hit a batter and yet to allow an earned run.

HIGHLANDS 3, NORTH HARDIN 2 (8 innings)