The Ninth Region giant has fallen.
It was a special night in Park Hills as Notre Dame honored former softball coach Joe Stephenson and took down Highlands, 4-3.
“Joe built this program; I owe a lot to him,” Notre Dame coach Christopher Schreiber said. “He built the culture here. That said, it was easy to follow the culture, but hard to follow in his footsteps. This is something that Joe built throughout the years and I’m fortunate enough to follow him and continue that tradition.”
Highlands came in with 29 consecutive wins over Ninth Region opponents. The Bluebirds knew they had the target on their backs.
“We’ve said it all along that everybody wants to beat us.” Highlands head coach, Milt Horner said “When you’re at the top, people want to knock you off the top, every team wants to do that. Notre Dame did it today. They wanted it and got it done. I told them ‘Every team wants to beat us. Hopefully, you guys realize that now and come with your fighting shoes on every game.’”
Their early 2-0 lead became a momentum booster for the rest of the contest. Ava Auberger had an RBI single for the first run and Ava McKinley scored the next.
“That one was pretty lucky. It was a little dropper, but I just wanted to put it in play and hope for the best.” Auberger said “It was just insane. It’s a confidence booster for us. We’re going to keep building on it and hopefully keep winning.”
Auberger had two hits and an RBI.
“With a young team, getting those early runs eases the tension and anxiety.” Schreiber said, “They were huge. Highlands is a great team, and we knew they were going to fight back.”
Highlands sure did fight back. They scored one run in the second, fourth, and fifth innings for a 3-2 lead.
Cam Markus was the center of attention at the plate for the Bluebirds. The sophomore leftfielder went 3-for-4, resulting in two RBI. She also had a run.
Payton Brown and courtesy runner, Katherine Heilman scored the other two runs. Brown also had two hits.
Notre Dame answered with two runs in the bottom half of the fifth. McKinley and Auberger were back at it with more hits. McKinley hit a line drive to center field. Two runs were scored, and the Pandas took the lead back…this time for good.
McKinley finished the night with two RBI, one run and one hit.
The performances by both pitchers were neck-and-neck. Kaitlyn Dixon ended with four strikeouts for Highlands, allowing four hits, three earned runs and walked three. Notre Dame’s Abby Turnpaugh had six strikeouts to go with one RBI. Turnpaugh scattered eight hits with three earned runs and four walks.
“Abby is coming in to be a really good pitcher,” Schreiber said. “She did an incredibly good job of working the plates. When you get a couple of runs, not only is it confidence for a defense, but most importantly the pitcher.”
Additionally, for the Pandas, Addison Zinser had a hit and two runs. Lucy Dillon also crossed home plate.
For Highlands, Allison Meyers had a run and a hit. Bailey Markus had a hit as well with an RBI.
The Bluebirds move to 20-8 and 8-1 in the Ninth Region. The last loss prior to Tuesday night against a 9th Region foe was Dixie Heights on May 20, 2022.
“They just need to figure out that if they come to play, they can be in every game.” Horner said “We’ve been in almost every game, even the ones we’ve lost. I assume that if we see them in the region tournament, it will be another tough game. We’ve got to figure out how to do the little things to win.”
Notre Dame improves to 12-6 and is now 10-1 against Ninth Region teams.
PANDAS 4, BLUEBIRDS 3
HIGHLANDS — 010-011-0 — 3-8-1
NOTRE DAME — 200-020-x — 4-4-1
2B — (H) B. Markus, C. Markus, (NDA) Auberger, Zinser
WP — Turnpaugh. LP — Dixon.
Records: Highlands 20-8, Notre Dame 12-6
