Just one inning can change a baseball game.
For Campbell County, that was the sixth inning in which the Camels put nine runs on
the board on their way to a 11-3 win over Highlands in Fort Thomas at Highland Hills Park
Tied at 2-2 in the top of the sixth, the Camels found their groove. All nine players in the lineup got on base, seven with a hit.
“I always tell the kids to pass the baton to the next guy,” Campbell County coach
Scott Schweitzer said. “You pass the baton and good things happen. We had a couple
of big hits, we were able to tag up, score runs, and move. I was happy with them.”
Will Haigis and Nate Delany led the team in RBI with two. Parker Schweitzer had a
terrific night going 3-for-3 with an RBI, double and a run scored. Camden Tiermeier
provided two hits and scored two runs as well.
The Bluebirds were scrambling to find consistency on the mound, using three
pitchers in the final three innings. Along with the 11 runs, 12 hits were given up and
five batters were walked in the contest.
“We needed to throw strikes and a little bit of it is confidence,” Highlands coach
Jeremy Baioni said. “You can’t give a team like that free base runners. You can’t
afford to do that against a good team. They’re going to pile on runs. Whatever
could’ve gone wrong, went wrong in that inning.”
Zach Franzen led the way on the mound for the Camels. He finished the night with
eight strikeouts and didn’t walk a batter in six innings of work.
“Zach can get into situations and pitch his way out,” Schweitzer said. “He’s pitched
for me since he was a freshman and he’s a big game pitcher. He’s confident all the
time and he was good today.”
Highlands took the first lead of the game in the second inning off a Callum McAtee RBI double, leading the team at the plate in going 2-for-3. They added a run in the fourth as Luke Schneider crossed home plate and Zach DeSylva drove Schneider in during the sixth. Schneider scored all three Bluebird runs.
Cam Bottoms started the game as pitcher for the Bluebirds, ending the night with
four strikeouts and two runs given up in four innings of work.
Once changes were made in the bullpen, it changed the entire game for Highlands.
“We need to learn the importance of being in a rhythm,” Baioni said. “How we
reacted offensively and defensively when our pitchers are throwing strikes in the
first few innings and then how negatively we reacted when we’re struggling. It’s
important to keep our guys in a rhythm on defense and keep the offense running.
We know that, we’ve known it all year. They went out and tried, they just didn’t have
the fuel for it.”
After a 5-5 start to the season, the Camels are 10-4 over their last 14 games. The senior-laden bunch is showing a ton of urgency when it matters most here towards the end of the regular season and headed into the postseason in a little over a week.
“We have 13 seniors and most of these seniors grew up playing together,”
Schweitzer said. “They’re a fun group, but sometimes they can have too much fun.
That can be the hard thing to police when you get up a few runs and they lose their
focus some. The dugout is a huge piece of it. They had a good time.”
The Bluebirds fall to 18-12, snapping a five-game winning streak. The Camels have won five straight over their county foes.
CAMELS 11, BLUEBIRDS 3
CAMPBELL COUNTY — 001-019-0 — 11-12-1
HIGHLANDS — 010-101-0 — 3-6-0
2B — (CC) Delaney, Schweitzer
WP — Franzen. LP — Forman.
Records: Campbell County 15-9, Highlands 18-12
