Kaitlyn Dixon can laugh at herself.
Highlands junior pitcher Kaitlyn Dixon remembers the time she slipped and fell – in the circle during a game – two years ago.
“I’m kind of a clumsy person, and normally I don’t let it infiltrate into softball,” she said Tuesday. “But that time it really got the best (of) me.”
To be sure, Dixon is as dextrous as any local pitcher you can name. She’s in her fifth season with the three-time defending Ninth Region champion Bluebirds, and she has a 41-14 career record with 565 strikeouts, including a combined 26 in wins over Conner and Louisville Ballard.
Highlands junior catcher Payton Brown knows Dixon well – she met her in seventh grade. “Very locked in” describes Dixon’s in-the-circle demeanor.
“She doesn’t get rattled very easily,” Brown said. “She’s very … focused and determined to win. She’s very calm … She never looks stressed on the mound.”
The adjective “preternatural” describes something “beyond what is normal or natural.” Dixon isn’t sure that explains her game-time serenity.
“I really try not to let other teams get the best of me because I know that even if I give up a big hit, my team is behind me,” Dixon said. “I think it’s more I’m confident in my team rather than I’m overly calm.”
Dixon’s 2024 numbers were among the best in the state – her 286 strikeouts and 1.68 earned run average over 191-1/3 innings were ninth and 22nd, respectively.
Dixon knew she wanted to pitch as a nine-year-old at Ruth Moyer Elementary School.
“My sister (2018 Highlands graduate Alyssa Dixon) played softball, and I would come to all the games,” Kaitlyn said. “At the time they had a really good pitcher, and I would just come, I would watch (and think) I want to be like her whenever I play.”
Highlands coach Milt Horner first saw Dixon at a summer team camp. He thought she could be a really good pitcher two years later, when he sent her in to relieve starter Kennedy Baioni in a 10-7 win on May 2, 2022 at Cooper. (She earned her only career save.)
“I don’t know if (Baioni) developed a blister or something, and we brought Kaitlyn in for a save, basically,” Horner said. “ … She got like the last four outs and wasn’t phased at all.”
Another of Dixon’s favorite softball memories was striking out six Notre Dame Pandas in last year’s 6-2 regional final win.
“We won our last game, and everybody ran out and we just hugged,” Dixon said.
Horner, however, recalls something less joyful from 2023, when Dixon replaced Baioni in the circle.
“She got a line drive back in the face; it actually bent her face mask,” Horner said.
After Baioni replaced Dixon and pitched for an inning, Horner noticed something unexpected – Dixon on the top step of the dugout, wanting to pitch.
“I looked at the trainer and said, ‘Are you sure?’” Horner said. “And she said, ‘I’ve done all the concussion tests; if she wants to go she can go.
“And she went and finished the game. If I’d been hit in the face mask and bent the face mask, I’m not sure I’m going back in.”
There are five pitches in softball – fastball, curveball, drop ball, rise ball and changeup. Dixon’s fastball clocks in at 59 mph, which fastpitcher.com said is average for an 18-year-old senior, but she’s worked on the drop ball and changeup.
Dixon said one of her softball heroines is former East Carter and Alabama star Montana Fouts, whom she met at a summer camp.
“I’ve worked with her before, and she’s just fun to watch, I think,” Dixon said.
Dixon doesn’t play any other sports, but she has hobbies away from the diamond; pickleball, hanging out with friends and simply wandering around Tower Park in Fort Thomas.
“I think (Tower Park’s) so fun,” Dixon said. “Since they redid it, there’s so many options, and it’s really easy to be social because there are always so many people.”
Brown would like to see Dixon strike out 1,000 for her career, which would rank her among the top 30 in state history. (Fouts leads with 1,964 from 2012-2018, and former Ryle star Kirsten Allen had 1,865 from 2004-2008.)
Dixon, meanwhile, desires something no Highlands team has done since the Kentucky High School Athletic Association switched from a double- to single-elimination format in 2019.
“I think it’d be really awesome if we could go there and win a game (at state) this year,” she said. “And, you know, as many as possible, but at least one.”