As we head into the state baseball tournament this weekend at UK’s Kentucky Proud Park, it looks like the state rankings haven’t missed out on Northern Kentucky players but may be overlooking Highlands’ fast-finishing Bluebirds (27-7-1) who are set to meet South Warren (30-8) Friday at 1 p.m. in the opening round of the 16-team, two-weekend tourney, June 5-14.
South Warren enters Friday’s game ranked No. 5 among the 16 teams by both MaxPreps.com and Prep Baseball Report and is a big favorite over the Birds, listed as the No. 14 team in the 16-team field. Louisville Trinity (34-3) is the pick by all the handicappers here with Louisville schools St. Xavier (30-7) and defending state champ Pleasure Ridge Park (41-4) the Nos. 3-4 picks. The only disagreement is whether the final team in the top five is Louisville Ballard (33-4-1) or McCracken County (29-8).
Terrific opportunity for this Highlands’ team to strike a blow for Northern Kentucky as the Birds did a decade ago in twice making it to the state championship game.
Three here 1st-team All-State
While six players from the Louisville area have been named to the Baseball Coaches All-State team, Northern Kentucky had three make the top team – one from each region here. They are Beechwood’s Chase Flaherty (.357, 10-2), Simon Kenton’s Tyler Ruete (.413) and Campbell County’s Tyler Schumacher (.450, 6-0) joining Corbin’s Mr. Baseball, Kade Elam (.453, 4-1).
Named to the second team are Ryle’s Anthony Coppola (.462) and Dylan McIntyre (7-1, .361) along with two South Warren players — Griffin Rardin (.490) and Mikey Coradini (9-1).
Named to the third team, a spot way below where the sophomore speedster should have been selected, is Beechwood center fielder Tyler Fryman, who hit .436 and stole 34 bases in 36 attempts and may well be the best fielding outfielder in the state. Also named third team was another South Warren player, Ethan Reynolds (.513).
Major overlook on the All-State team was Highlands’ hard-hitting outfield Brooks Hendrix, the Ninth Region MVP with 52 base hits – second-most in the state — and a .578 batting average.
But if you’re looking for a really long shot…
You couldn’t go wrong with Holy Cross’ Ninth Region softball champs who also open Friday in Lexington at 10 a.m. at UK’s John Cropp Stadium against No. 18 Harrison County (33-6), the 10th Region champs. The Lady Indians (18-12) are ranked No. 131 in Kentucky by MaxPreps.com and behind five other Northern Kentucky teams who will not be playing this weekend in Lexington.
Horizon says ‘Hi”
In maybe the best single effort by a Horizon Conference team in an NCAA tournament ever, and the biggest single upset in the modern era of NCAA baseball, Wright State’s Raiders were assigned this past weekend to the Nashville regional hosted by the nation’s No. 1 seed Vanderbilt in Nashville where they eliminated the host Commodores in the two-and-out tourney.
While the NKU-rival Raiders would eventually fall short in the four-team regional, it was a heck of an effort. And adds a bit of a luster to a 31-25 NKU baseball team that finished as the No. 2 seed in the Horizon behind Wright State before the Raiders eliminated NKU in the Horizon postseason tournament in NKU’s third straight 30-win season.
Also in the NCAA tourney…
True freshman Charlie Dieruf, out of Hebron and Covington Catholic, appeared in 16 games for 24.1 innings for Mid-American Conference winner Miami of Ohio including the season-ending one-run loss to Wake Forest in the NCAA’s Knoxville Regional.
Contact Dan Weber at dweber3440@aol.com. Follow him on X (formerly Twitter) @dweber3440.