If you’re looking for mystery in the Ninth Region high school softball race, you won’t find it at the top. Not with this roster and not with this returning ace.
Highlands enters 2026 as the Ninth Region’s preseason No. 1 in Kentucky Prep Softball’s statewide rankings. The Bluebirds wear that label with the kind of confidence that comes from experience, depth, and a whole lot of production returning.
“We’re almost the same as last year; we only lost one starter,” senior pitcher Kaitlyn Dixon said. “I feel super confident about us.”
It appears that the Bluebirds’ peers are in agreement. Everybody is behind Highlands in the preseason poll. Following the Bluebirds in the top five are Conner, Cooper, Ryle and Notre Dame. Rounding out the top 10 are Holy Cross, Dixie Heights, Beechwood, Boone County and Villa Madonna.
A big reason why the Bluebirds are top-ranked is that they boast five of the region’s top 19 players according to Kentucky Prep Softball. The standouts are catcher Payton Brown, outfielder Cam Markus, second baseman Morgan Pompilio, third baseman Allison Meyers, and Dixon. All but Meyers are seniors.
That doesn’t include shortstop Layla Zepf or the Class cousins — outfielders Bailee and Kate — all sophomores who hit .340 or better last season.
“We have good batters and good pitching,” Brown said. “We know the pitching needs us behind them in the field, so we really work on defense, too.”
They did that most of Monday.
“Just getting our timing down and getting everything ready for the season,” said Brown.
The season starts March 16. The Bluebirds open March 18 at home vs. Louisville Ballard at 5:30 p.m.
2026 storylines
Catcher Payton Brown socked a Bluebirds-high 10 home runs last season. The rest of the team hit eight homers. Photo provided
All this returning talent at Highlands combined with critical losses elsewhere around the region is driving a key preseason narrative.
“Many of the long-time good pitchers graduated last year,” coach Milt Horner said. “Kaitlyn was top 10 in the state in strikeouts, wins, innings pitched, and 14th in ERA. By the end of the year, she will hold almost all of Highlands’ pitching records and will have well over 1,000 strikeouts.”
It’s the simplest, cleanest storyline in the region: defending Ninth Region champion Holy Cross lost ace Evie Thomas. Tournament semifinalist Ryle lost its ace, Laci DeLauder. Semifinalist Notre Dame lost Abby Turnpaugh.
Highlands, last season’s region runner-up, still has Dixon. She returns after posting a 22-3 record with 295 strikeouts and just 37 walks in 166 innings pitched as a junior. Her ERA was a scant 1.18. She also hit .390. Dixon is throwing to Brown, the region’s top catcher. The sensation in the circle has an airtight defense behind her, including one of the region’s top fielding outfielders, with Markus in center.
Among regional returnees, Dixon is the only regularly starting pitcher from the Ninth Region Tournament who carved an ERA lower than 5.80 last season. Among all returnees, Villa Madonna junior Cam Kratzer (2.88) is the only other regular starter who did that. Though some teams are sitting on nice young arms that need further development, pitching doesn’t figure to be a regional strength in 2026. If teams have it, it’s even more of a plus this season.
That’s why tiny Villa Madonna and Kratzer weigh in at preseason No. 10 over a host of bigger schools. If the Vikings keep up the quality hitting, manage to find a way into the Ninth Region tournament and prove they can take on bigger schools, and beat them, watch out.
As last season’s regional demonstrated, anything can happen with one swing of the bat, even a championship game walk-off grand slam by a .197 freshman hitter who had never previously homered in her high school career. Holy Cross also showed how a small-school program with a legitimate ace can upend bigger schools in a tournament setting.
So, expect a lot of high-scoring games in the region this season and ensuing drama as the schedule plays out.
“I think you could put the next seven or eight schools in a bowl, pull out a name at a time and put them in that order and you would probably have as good a guess as any,” coach Horner said. “None of them have established pitching except for Villa.”
Bluebirds ready for takeoff
Highlands’ battery of Dixon and Brown is generating a lot of preseason buzz. Dixon is adding pitches to her repertoire and now features seven in the arsenal. Having mastered the finer aspects of up-and-down movement in the strike zone with rise balls and drop balls, she’s working more on side-to-side movement with curveballs and screwballs to rule the entire zone.
Brown is a force at the plate and behind it after smashing a team-high 10 home runs in 2025. Of Brown’s 50 hits last season, 29 went for extra bases, including 14 doubles and five triples in 94 at-bats. She hit .534 and slugged 1.106. She was also 12-for-12 on steal attempts and struck out just six times.
“Payton will be top three in almost every school batting record before she’s done,” Horner said. “And she was top 50 in the state last year in seven categories.”
Pompilio, a contact hitter, batted .408 and struck out just five times. Markus hit .394.
“The unquestioned strength of this team is the senior class,” Horner said. “All four of them will play in college next year: Brown at NKU, Dixon at Thomas More, Markus at Kentucky Wesleyan, and Pompilio at College of Central Florida. Junior Alli Meyers is also entering her fourth year as a starter.”
Horner said these girls have been leaders for the last several years.
“They are all excellent working with the younger players. We have 10 seventh graders,” the coach said. “I’m also extremely excited about the sophomore class, with at least three experienced starters. They get overlooked because of the talent above them, but all three of them are poised to have breakout years. On most teams, they would all be stars.”
The coach has a personal connection to the future: his granddaughter Samantha, a seventh grader, is one of the newcomers.
So many players are back that the only vacancy is first base, where a handful are competing for playing time. Ava Dickman is in the mix at first and vying for No. 2 pitcher with Katherine Heilman competing for the same positions. Caroline Dalton also plays first base. Olivia Fromm, an eighth grader with a bright future, will serve as Brown’s backup behind the plate.
How Highlands got here
The Bluebirds aren’t good by accident. They’re good by design. With three of the last four regional championships to their credit, they are eager to reassert their dominance. It would be a crowning achievement for the seniors, the latest in an assembly line of players.
“We take a lot of pride in our year-round program,” Horner said. “We reach out to the sixth graders each year and introduce them to our skills development so when they hit seventh grade, they know what to expect.”
From there, the workload ramps up.
“Starting at the beginning of the school year, we do two skills practices per week,” Horner said. “Over the last two years, we have introduced a serious strength and conditioning program that many participate in that meets three times per week.”
A culture of buy‑in fueled by recent success then takes hold.
“I’ve been very fortunate to be able to use that success to get buy-in from the girls at a young age that this is what they need to do to be like the girls that came before them,” Horner said. “I’m also fortunate to have a great group of assistants who are excellent at teaching softball skills.”
It’s a group effort in all phases, including hitting. The Bluebirds batted .393 as a team last year and averaged nearly nine runs per game. “We don’t have a specific hitting coach; we all participate working with various players,” Horner said. “Several of the girls have personal instructors, and we try hard not to mess with things they have learned outside. We do work hard on the strategy of hitting.”
This season, part of the strategy is building bigger leads. The Bluebirds led 3-1 going into the bottom of the seventh of the regional final before Kayla Fledderman’s slam flipped the script for Holy Cross.
“We don’t forget about the grand slam last year – things happen in softball,” coach Horner said. “Our goal is to work hard enough to be able to overcome something like that.”
The Bluebirds have the roster to do it. They have the pitching to do it. They have the seniors, and they have the hunger.
“Sometimes, things just happen and that was a team loss,” Brown said of last season’s final game. “It wasn’t one pitch. We didn’t hit. We have to hit in every game. That’s what we learned.”