By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Play ball! Next up! Have fun! See you next season!
As they always seem to do, the Northern Kentucky High School Baseball Coaches said goodbye to their seniors, hello to their juniors — next year’s stars — with a full-of-fun All-Star doubleheader Monday at Dixie Heights.
And in doing what they always seem to do so well, the coaches – and the games they put on — honored dozens in the process while entertaining back-to-back capacity crowds.
There were plays, and players, doing things you’ve never seen before. No, really, there was one play no one had ever seen — until Monday.
There were inning-ending double plays – three of them. Try to take an extra base, better not, at least not with two outs.
Hit the ball into the darkness at the fence. Or dump it in front of an outfielder and watch the guys with the gloves jump on it.
That is, until they couldn’t, like when Covington Catholic catcher Jonathan Fitz hit one past the fence and the lights and somewhere near the Dixie Highway for a grand slam that was just a teeny-tiny part of the East Seniors’ 15 unanswered runs on the way to a run-rule five-inning victory over a West team that had taken a 4-0 lead after three innings on the way to what appeared to be a sweep for the West.
Speaking for himself after Game 1 and his opponents after Game 2, West Coach Clint Coleman of Walton-Verona summed it up: “It was a lot of fun,” Coleman said after his juniors had raced out to a 7-0 lead, using seven of their nine pitchers for an inning apiece and had a shutout going until the final three outs.
“That’s not something you see in an All-Star Game,” Coleman said of the near shutout, “with summer ball going on, you just never know” what kind of pitching you’ll have.
You surely didn’t know in a second game, the night-cap for seniors saying so long to Northern Kentucky baseball, when his West team jumped out to a 4-0 lead. That they would end up losing by 11, needing two runs in the bottom of the fifth just to keep the game going to close the lead under 10 runs, well maybe it was better to finish up finding the fun.
That’s something both Senior teams seemed to pick up on. Like Evan Moore, the Bishop Brossart lefty who opened on the mound for the Seniors, became the night’s first pitcher in either game to go a second inning, before leaving down 3-0 after giving up a couple of walks with a wild pitch in the first.
All Moore did was to come back in the fourth with the night’s first dinger, to key a five-run outburst to give his seniors the lead.
But that offensive prowess paled in comparison to the next inning, when the East doubled its output, scoring 10 more runs on five hits with four bases on balls, a hit batter, an error, a stolen base and, oh yeah, Fitz’s mammoth grand slam.
“I saw the pitch out of his hand,” Fitz said and with the bases loaded, knew the ball was coming his way. Did he take a home run cut? Oh yeah.
“That was a good way to go out,” said the Northern Kentucky Player of the Year on his way to the University of San Diego on a baseball scholarship.
And the game, his last game in Northern Kentucky? “It had a little bit of everything,” Fitz said.
Indeed.
And a couple of those “everything” plays involved catchers. Well, at least three of them did. Maybe to make up for all that equipment they have to wear, catchers deserve to have more fun.
That’s when Walton-Verona’s Ethan Mills, on a pickoff attempt throwing to first, had his mask fly off and fly up in the air before landing with a painful thud on his throwing hand just as he released the ball – into right field somewhere – and the trainer was on the field checking out Mills’ injured throwing hand. After some time, he was able to continue.
Then there was Moore, an all-star at two positions this year, who came back at a third – as a lefthanded catcher finishing out the game.
Not to be outdone, on his final at-bat in the final inning, Dixie Heights’ all-state catcher Ethan Bosley jumped to the left side for a first-ever switch-hitting at bat. Seeing the switch, East pitcher Evan Clark changed from throwing bloop balls right-handed to serving one up with his left arm.
But he went back to his right arm and fired a final pitch that the now-lefty Bosley cracked into right field with a terrific-looking swing, but right at the right fielder.
And it was over, 15-4 East. Which makes what the West did in the 7-2 win in Juniors’ matchup in Game 1 so impressive considering the East draws from powers like Beechwood, Covington Catholic, Highlands and Campbell County.
SPECIAL AWARDS
DOC MORRIS FOUNDATION AWARD WINNERS:
• Missy Arlinghaus (wife of retiring Conner Coach Brad Arlinghaus
• Torin O’Shea, Beechwood High School, 2023
• T.J. Southwick, Bellevue High School, 2023
• Logan Wilson, Dixie Heights High School, 2022
NINTH REGON SPECIAL HONORS
• Player of the Year: Cameron Boyd, Beechwood
• Coach of the Year: Rob Wermeling, Holy Cross
• Assistant Coach of the Year: Nate Schneider, Beechwood
ALL-STATE RECOGNITION
• 1st Team: Cameron Boyd, Beechwood
• 2nd team: Aydan Hamilton, Campbell County
• 3rd Team: Ethan Bosley, Dixie Heights; • Jack Hendrix, Highlands; Evan Moore, Bishop Brossart
NORTHERN KENTUCKY BASEBALL COACHES ALL-STAR TEAMS
DIVISION AA ALL-STARS
DH: Chris Henson, Boone County
1B: Dakota Brown, Simon Kenton
2B: Roman Furuta, Ryle
SS: Aydan Hamilton, Campbell County
3B: Cory Henson, Conner
C: Jonathan Fitz, Covington Catholic
OF: Charlie Dieruf, Covington Catholic
OF: Mark Nowak, Cooper
OF: Ayden Lohr, Conner
P: Brody Mangold, Conner
P: Dylan McIntyre, Ryle
DIVISION A ALL-STARS
DH: Mason Preston, Beechwood
1B: Robbie Verst, Bishop Brossart
2B: Nazario Pangallo, Beechwood
SS: Jack Hendrix, Highlands
3B: Jason Dorning, Holy Cross
C: Aiden Dickerson, Bellevue
OF: Cameron Boyd, Beechwood
OF: Matt Resing, St. Henry
OF: Evan Moore, Bishop Brossart
P: Evan Moore, Bishop Brossart
P: Matt Kappes, Beechwood
PLAYER OF THE YEAR (DIVISION I): Jonathan Fitz, Covington Catholic
PLAYER OF THE YEAR (DIVISION II): Cameron Boyd, Beechwood
PLAYER OF THE YEAR (DIVISION III): Aiden Dickerson, Bellevue
JIM CONNOR COACH OF THE YEAR: Troy Roberts, Simon Kenton