NKU’S WARRICK STIRRING LOTS OF INTEREST
After his four years at NKU and leaving as the Norse’s all-time career scoring leader, Marques Warrick is attracting lots of top Division I attention with another year of eligibility. The 6-2 shooting guard, who averaged 19.9 points a game as a senior, has heard from the likes of Indiana, Arkansas, Missouri, Cincinnati, Xavier, North Carolina State, South Carolina, Virginia Tech, Arizona State and the College of Charleston, according to The Portal Report.
UK LOOKS TO THE HORIZON
Maybe it shouldn’t surprise us after the way UK basketball was ushered out of the NCAA Tournament in the first round by NKU’s Horizon League conference mate Oakland. But the reports are that UK has a serious interest in the best player in the Horizon, Milwaukee junior guard BJ Freeman. In a split series with NKU, the 6-foot-6, 200-pound Freeman scored 41 points (15 at NKU, 26 at Milwaukee) and a record 103 points in four Horizon Tourney games. And yes, he could play for UK.
NORTHERN KENTUCKY BASEBALL CONTINUES TO BE OVERLOOKED
Maybe it’s the fact that Northern Kentucky teams have won just two state baseball championships in the last 61 years (Holmes 1963 coached by Jon Draud) and Covington Catholic, 2002, coached by Bill Krumpelbeck). Maybe it’s that there’s much less inter-region play in baseball than in basketball and volleyball. Maybe it’s something else since Northern Kentucky teams have certainly crashed the state polls ceilings in basketball, volleyball and football, for certain, in recent years.
But baseball. That’s a tough one. This week’s Max Preps Top 25 has just two Northern Kentucky teams on the list this first week of April. Simon Kenton (9-1) is No. 10. Unbeaten CovCath (8-0) is No. 12.
Not that Northern Kentucky teams haven’t come close with five straight local teams — from 2014 through 2018 — finishing as runners-up in the state tournament. They were Simon Kenton in 2014 and 2017 under Troy Roberts, Highlands in 2015 and 2018 under Jeremy Baioni and Campbell County under Steve Schweitzer in 2016.
Louisville Trinity (12-1) is No. 1. Bowling Green (11-0) and Louisville Ballard (12-1) are Nos. 2-3. Here are the rest of the Top 25: 4) Louisville Eastern; 5) Boyd County (7-1); 6) Greenwood (8-0); 7) Boyle County (9-1); 8) Taylor County (8-0); 9) Anderson County (10-1); 10) Simon Kenton (9-1); 11) McCracken County (6-2); 12) Covington Catholic (8-0); 13) Madison Central (6-3); 14) Raceland (11-0); 15) Corbin (8-2); 16) Pleasure Ridge Park (9-1); 17) South Laurel (10-2); 18) Owensboro (5-1); 19) West Jessamine (4-1); 20) Muhlenberg County (9-1); 21) Rowan County (12-0); 22) Frederick Douglass (6-3); 23) South Warren (8-3); 24) Scott County (8-3); Graves County (11-1).
The rankings may not reflect it but the early team and individual stats have a number of Northern Kentucky teams at or near the top in the KHSAA. Here are the team rankings:
BATTING AVERAGE: Dayton is No. 1 with a .415 (68-164) in seven games. Lloyd Memorial is No. 22 (.339 on 113-333) and CovCath is No. 24 (.337 on 65-193).
RUNS SCORED: Scott is No. 12 with 108 in 12 games, a 9.00 average.
TEAM HITS: Scott is also the leader here at No. 5 in the state with 116 in 355 at-bats.
DOUBLES: Scott again, leads the way here and also No. 5 in the state with 24 in 12 games.
TRIPLES: Dayton, with five, and Dixie Heights with four, are Nos. 14-15 in the KHSAA and tops here.
HOME RUNS: Boone County, with six in eight games, leads the way here and is No. 10 in the state.
RBI: Scott is No. 6 with 95, Walton-Verona No. 20 with 79.
STOLEN BASES: Dayton again, with 63 in 70 attempts in seven games.
EARNED RUN AVERAGE: CovCath No. 8 in the state with a 1.37 ERA, allowing just 10 earned runs.
STRIKEOUTS: Scott, with 8.71 a game, is No. 17 in the state.
Now for individual stats leaders:
BATTING AVERAGE: Lots of local leaders here. Lloyd’s Grayson Begnoche, after just three games, is hitting .667, second-best in the state. CovCath’s Jackson Reardon is at .636 (14-22) after eight games, No. 6 in the state. Nos. 7-8 are both from Dayton – Landon Graham (.632 on 12-19 and Chad Nickell (.619 on 13 of 21). But the hitting leaders don’t end there: Ryle’s AJ Curry is No, 16 at .586 (17-29), Lloyd’s Hayden Hungler is No. 19 at .571 (4-7) while Holy Cross’ David Wilson is No. 21 at .562 (9-16).
HOME RUNS: Boone County’s David Moore is No. 9 with three homers in eight games.
HITS: The lone leader here is Scott’s Trevor Pulsfort with 12 hits in 18 at-bats.
DOUBLES: Tied for No. 2 in the state are two from here with Calvary Christian’s Noah Thornberry and Beechwood’s Michael Detzel with seven apiece.
TRIPLES: With two apiece, Dayton’s Landon and Villa Madonna’s Ryan Timm are listed at Nos. 18-19 in the state.
BASES ON BALLS: with 12 each, Scott’s Kyle Groneck and CovCath’s Marcus Suwinski are listed Nos. 16-20 by the KHSAA.
SLUGGING PERCENTAGE: Three of the top five and four of the top 10 are local. Nos. 2-3-5 respectively, are Covington Latin’s Aidan Ross (1.200), Scott’s Brock Ronnebaum (1.167) and Dayton’s Graham ( 1.158) with Dayton’s Nickell No. 10 (1.095).
RBI: Boone’s Moore and Scott’s Pulsfort are Nos. 5-6 with 20 each.
RUNS: With 16 runs scored, Beechwood’s Tyler Fryman is the lone leader from here in the top 40. He’s in the 16-24 rankings.
STOLEN BASES: That there are no local leaders listed here might be a tribute to the catchers. But we’ll see how this plays out.
EARNED RUN AVERAGE: Scott’s Porter Huston is tied at the top with an 0.00 ERA in 13 innings. Walton-Verona’s Mason Howard is No. 23 at 0.44 in 16 innings.
STRIKEOUTS: Holmes’ Landon Turner has 35 to earn a spot in the 9-11 rankings.
WINS: Tied with three apiece for the Nos. 8-49 spots are Dixie Heights’ Thomas Gemeinhardt, CovCath’s Bradley Zekl and Scott’s Groneck.
SAVES: With one save each, Dixie Heights’ Aiden Mills and Simon Kenton’s Jacob Piper and Scott’s Brady Smith are in the Nos. 27-50 spots.
INNINGS PITCHED: With 20 innings pitched, Holmes’ Turner is the lone leader from here at the Nos. 32-39 spots.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.