Michelle Barth has had quite the weekend.
First on Saturday, Barth delivered the game-winning hit in a 2-1, 10-inning victory over Cooper in the 9th Region softball semifinals. Then on Sunday, Barth knocked a two-run double in extra innings as Highlands repeated as 9th Region softball champs, defeating Dixie Heights 4-2 in eight innings.
With more attention paid all season to the reigning champs, the Bluebirds not only repeated, but didn’t lose a game in their 16 Ninth Region contests this season.
“Last year I don’t think many people expected us to win. This year they had the target on their back all year and that makes it harder. Didn’t lose in the 9th Region all year and when you’ve got that target it makes it harder. These last two days we earned every single thing we got,” Bluebirds coach Milt Horner said.
After stealing one over Dixie Heights in last year’s regional title game with two late runs for a 3-2 victory, the Bluebirds nearly gave one away on Sunday.
Two errors in the fourth inning helped plate two for the Colonels to tie the game up at 2-2. Another error in the sixth nearly scored what would have been the winning run for Dixie Heights, but shortstop Payton Brown recovered a bobbled ball to throw out Skylar Mitchell at home trying to score from second and prevent the run from scoring.
If Colonels coach Sarah Osborne could have that one back, she’d do it differently.
“I got greedy on that one instead of trusting my players. This one is on me,” Osborne said. “I couldn’t have asked for anything else from this bunch. They did exactly everything we asked them to do and sometimes it doesn’t go our way.”
Dixie Heights loaded the bases in the seventh after an intentional walk to Ella Steczynski with two outs, but as she had done all tournament, Bluebirds freshman pitcher Kaitlyn Dixon rose to the occasion.
She got Haley Waters to strike out and send the game to extras. Dixon pounded the strike zone all day with 88 strikes compared to 32 balls.
“It made me throw a lot less pitches and gave me a little bit more confidence not being down in the count,” Dixon said. “It was stressful out there and had confidence in my team to get what they needed to done.”
Dixon wasn’t the top Bluebirds pitching option coming into the season, but an injury to senior Kennedy Baioni put Dixon in the top spot.
“She gave up one earned run in 18 innings in the last two days. That’s pretty amazing against two good teams,” Horner said.
Then the Bluebird bats got going. First it was Dixie Heights first error of the game to get Morgan Pompillio on with Brown following on an infield single to put runners on first and second with one out for Barth.
The junior catcher drove a pitch into left center, plating Pompillio and Brown giving the Bluebirds the much needed hit they were looking for since the second inning.
Barth was later named the tournament MVP.
“I knew I had to either hit it to the right side or find a gap,” Barth said. “I sat back and waited on that pitch and it was a changeup down the middle. I just knew.”
Dixon did the rest as she worked around a one-out single in the bottom half of the eighth for three fly outs to end the game.
Highlands outhit Dixie Heights 9-3 on the day. Dixon collected eight strikeouts with two walks and a hit by pitch. Hopkins struck out three and allowed three earned runs with one walk.
The 5-6-7 hitters for Highlands came up big as Carley Cramer, Baioni and Dixon all had two hits apiece, Cramer with two doubles and Baioni with one.
“Going back-to-back is something I would have never dreamed of since coming into the program in seventh grade,” Baioni said.
Cramer and Baioni got the Bluebirds going in the second with back-to-back doubles, Baioni plating Cramer on hers.
“Those two seniors are incredible young ladies. When you have two seniors like that it makes everything else easy. If you saw earlier Kennedy picked up some of these younger girls after making errors today, couldn’t be more prouder than those two girls today,” Horner said.
Dixon followed with a single to make it 2-0.
Highlands now heads to the state tournament in Lexington, playing at University of Kentucky’s John Cropp Stadium on Thursday at 11 a.m. against Johnson Central. They’ll get three days to relish this one before taking off on their last official day of school.
“I think we’re the only school in Kentucky that’s still in school,” Horner joked. “Wes (Caldwell, Highlands AD) and I discussed that we didn’t want to get this tournament over too early and have so much time off before yesterday. Before yesterday, we had only played six offensive innings in like 16 days. We hadn’t seen really good pitching for a while and I didn’t want us to go a long time before the state tournament.”
For Dixie Heights, it’s the second straight agonizing loss to end their season a game away from state. They’ll regroup, Ella Steczynski is the lone senior on the team and although she’s a big piece at the top of the lineup and a stout defender at shortstop, the Colonels return everyone else with even more fuel to their fire to get back to this point next season.
“There’s no worse feeling than losing. They’re a good team and we couldn’t get the big hit when we needed to,” Osborne said. “The region will be strong again next year and it’s hard to get here. To face this team again for the second year in a row shows the strength of these two programs.”
HIGHLANDS — 020-000-02 — 4-9-4
DIXIE HEIGHTS — 000-200-00 — 2-3-1
2B — (H) Cramer 2, Baioni, Barth
WP — Dixon. LP — Hopkins.
Records: Highlands 27-8-1, Dixie Heights 21-14