By Dan Weber
NKyTribune Sports Reporter
Highlands’ top-ranked Bluebirds have had a big edge when it comes to this Ninth Region tournament baseball. They play the postseason games like they played the regular season – confident and comfortable.
As they were Wednesday evening in a one-sided 9-0 semifinal romp against Dixie Heights’ overmatched Colonels.
Senior Garrett Wiggins used his four-pitch repertoire to keep Dixie (21-18) off-balance all night in throwing a two-hit shutout, allowing just one Colonel to get as far as second base.
And at the plate, junior Brooks Hendrix just keeps pounding the ball for the Birds, hitting safely the first four times up before lining out the fifth and scoring all four times he was on base.
“We’ve just got a really good lineup,” said Hendrix, who is no surprise here. “He’s hitting nearly .600,” his coach, Brian Benzinger said. Good enough to top a lineup with six hitters above .300 and three more just under that mark that as a team was hitting .345 coming into this one.
“I’m just confident in my ability,’ Hendrix says, “I know I can hit anyone. Everybody on our team can. But when your pitcher allows two hits . . . .” Then you know you’re back in Thursday’s 8 p.m. regional final against a Beechwood team that beat Conner in the second game.
“He’s been legit all year long,” Benzinger said of Wiggins a lanky 6-foot-1 now but who worried as a 5-3 sophomore he’d never have the velocity to cut it on the mound. Now he no longer worries about the numbers on the radar gun.
“It doesn’t matter if you’re throwing 78 or 93, whatever the gun says,” says Wiggins, who benefits from the tutelage of his dad, Scott Wiggins, who was drafted by the Yankees and pitched for the Toronto Blue Jays. “Slider and curve ball,” Garrett says of his “go-to” pitches in his four-pitch arsenal along with a fast ball and change-up.
“Being able to throw all four (where he wants them),” is why he told his coach he wanted this start. Although his confidence out there, he says, “starts with the eight guys behind me. They’ve got my back.”
“He comes from a different angle,” Benzinger said of Wiggins’ delivery from the side a bit with his arm dropped down. “He’s not had a bad outing all year long.”
One more thing: “He’s a great kid,” Benzinger said.
This one was a no-doubter after Highlands (26-7-1) jumped on Dixie for two runs in the first and three more in the third with Hendrix – with a double and single – in the middle of both.
“We’ve just got good hitters who don’t strike out a lot,” Benzinger said, “we’re really good this year as two-strike hitters.”
But it’s in the Bluebird combo right now “of the three aspects of the game coming together – pitching, defense and hitting – yeah . . . ,” Benzinger says, this is what you want to see in his first season succeeding Jeremy Baioni, who took Highlands to a pair of state championship games in the past decade. Benzinger coached 20 seasons with three strong postseason runs in Ohio at New Richmond.
“I like the way Kentucky does it better,” Benzinger said after playing in 20-team districts in Ohio.
SCORING SUMMARY
HIGHLANDS 203 102 1—9 9 0
DIXIE HEIGHTS 000 000 0—0 2 0
WP: Wiggins (6-1) LP: Krohmer (2-4)
Hitters: Highlands: Hendrix 4-5, 2 doubles, 4 runs scored; Anderson 2-3, 3RBI; Schwalbach, 2 runs scored.