AMBER – While waiting his turn to warm up for the home run derby at the 2010 Grady County Conference All-Star Game, Union City freshman Kolton Brown wondered if any ball could leave the park.
“I didn't think I would be able to hit it out,” Brown said. “It was windy and I had not practiced home run derby hitting in a while. It's a different style of swing. You've got to be more upright and swing with an upper cut and swing harder than normal.”
His doubts ended, though, when he launched a towering shot over the left center field wall in warmups.
“After I hit that first one out, I thought to myself, 'I could do this,'” Brown said.
And he did.
Brown won the derby over Ninnekah's Dallas Williams, 4-2, as the duo were the only players to launch home runs in the field of five.
In the preliminaries, each hitter was given 10 outs to hit as many home runs as possible. An out was any ball hit that did not leave the park, and players could take as many pitches as needed per swing.
Brown reached the final by hitting three balls out of the park in the prelims, compared to two for Williams. In the finals, Williams had two hits reach deep into the outfield but none went over the fence – leaving Brown with an easy task.
“I wanted him to go first so that I knew what I had to hit to win or match him,” Brown said.
Brown hit one home run in the finals and had several shots come close.
“I knew all I had to do was hit one to win,” Brown said.
Brown winning the derby was no surprise to his head coach.
“With the wind blowing I knew it was going to be tough to hit them out, but Kolton hit some good balls,” said head coach Ludy Griggs.