By Dan Weber
NKyTribune sports reporter
Brach Rice is a 6-foot-3, 240-pound linebacker headed to Miami of Ohio on a football scholarship this summer.
As such, he wasn’t planning to play baseball this spring. Then he sat down with Dixie Heights’ legendary baseball coach Chris Maxwell and had a talk. And then he decided to come back and finish out his senior season in baseball.
And now Brach is more than happy he changed his mind. So are the rest of the Colonels, especially Maxwell, as Dixie Heights won its 24th game Monday – and its fourth straight district championship – with a 7-2 win over St. Henry.
Brach’s two big RBI blasts – the first a triple in the first for the Colonels’ first run – have Dixie Heights (24-14) occupying the No. 3 spot in the Ninth Region behind the top two all season – Covington Catholic and Ryle.
“If it wasn’t for him,” Brach said of Maxwell, “I wouldn’t be here . . . the way he connects to you, the way he loves all his players . . . he talked me into playing and I’m really glad he did.”
OK, maybe there was that one hiccup this season that caused Rice to miss a dozen games after taking a shot to his head, above his right eye, that took 35 stitches to repair.
“They had to sew up inside, the muscle and the nerve,” he said, showing off a scar that’s not all that obvious anymore. No masks in baseball, unless you’re a catcher.
Rice wasn’t so sure this team could win 24 games after “losing our leader, catcher Ethan Bosley, who hit like .500 . . . at first, I had my thoughts and questions about that. . . we had to find that guy.”
And now they have, says Rice, by committee, as he names three-year starters up the middle like shortstop Sean Mitchell and second baseman Luke Abeling, each of whom joined Rice with two hits Monday.
But the Colonels are also getting help from younger guys like Monday’s starter and winner Kyle Flynn, a sophomore who is now 7-2 and one of the reasons Maxwell says he couldn’t have predicted “how deep our pitching would be.”
Of Flynn, Maxwell says “He’s a nice one for a sophomore.” Flynn said he’s a bit surprised himself, who “didn’t think I would” have this kind of season. “But I did good my first game and . . . .” And here he is, doing what he does. “I like to mix up my pitches, let my defense work, get ground balls and fly outs.” As for reaching 24 wins, Flynn says no surprise there: “I knew it all along.”
As for the hard-throwing Rice, who came in as the closer for the final inning, he’s back and ready for whatever Dixie needs him in next week’s regional that opens with four games on Memorial Day at Thomas More Stadium.
St.Henry starter Andrew Flanagan, also the leadoff hitter, got the Crusaders on the board first in the top of the first with one of his two hits getting him on and DH Braeden Francis singling him home. Dixie would put a run up each of the next two inning and three in the third as fielding and coverage issues hurt a St. Henry team that gave up four stolen bases.
34TH DISTRICT NOTEBOOK: The best thing about having Ludlow host the district is getting a chance to visit a beautifully refurbished Lemker Field at St. Elizabeth Ball Park now in its eighth decade with its great location on the banks of the Ohio River on Route 8/Elm Street. You can still watch the boats and barges go by although the trees are so high now that it’s not as easy to see them as it used to be when we were kids here . . . One of our favorite things about this place is how, if you’re driving by on a day when there’s no game and check out the beautiful lush outfield, those are not really four coyotes out there. They are fake coyotes, placed there to encourage the geese and ducks to choose another spot for landing and chowing down and – well, leaving behind lots of material in the outfield that could make it hard to play here. So now the flocks fly down, take a look and head elsewhere.
ALL-TOURNAMENT TEAM: Grayson Begnoche, Lloyd Memorial; Joey Eads, Ludlow; Andrew Flanagan, St. Henry; Kyle Flynn, Dixie Heights; Carson Pullum, Dixie Heights; Ryan Timm, Villa Madonna; and MVP Thomas Gemeinhardt, Dixie Heights, who threw a no-hitter against Ludlow Saturday.
SCORING SUMMARY
ST. HENRY (13-17) 100 000 1 — 2 5 2
DIXIE HEIGHTS (24-14) 113 002 x — 7 10 1
WP: Flynn (7-2) LP: Flanagan
LEADING HITTERS: DIXIE HEIGHTS: Rice 2-4, triple, 2 RBI; Mitchell 2-4, RBI; Abeling 2-4, double; Pullum 2-3, RBI; Steczynski, double. ST. HENRY: Flanagan, 2-4; Detzel, double.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.