Lincoln Park District holds inaugural Home Run Derby

[July 13, 2018] 

The Lincoln Park District had a second fireworks display Tuesday night, this time with the bats of their 12U league providing the excitement. In their inaugural event, 30 participants representing each of the 3 teams from the league took their swings at a home run derby contest on the Breezy diamond.

Each team had multiple contestants go deep and ooh’d and ahh’d the crowd as if they were big leaguers. Riley Freitag had the highest single round of 6 home runs in his 3 minute round earning him a bonus 30 seconds, where he went on to hit 2 more long balls for a single round total of 8. JJ Fults hit one off the top of the scoreboard in his round along with 3 more. Dawson McConnell, waited until he had just 1 minute left in his round before hitting one just off the top of the fence, then going on to hit 2 more to advance to round 2.

Twelve advanced to a bracket style 2nd round, with six making the finals. In the finals, Grant Laubenstein hit 3 dingers in his 60 seconds at bat to take the crown, narrowly defeating Wyatt Gross who hit 2.

Program Director Abby Neece and Executive Director John Andrews would like to thank the coaches whom put the event together, and DARE officer Christy Fruge whom provided pizza and water for the participating contestants as well as a prize for the home run champion.

[Dan Horn]