Last Saturday night, Chatham hosted the CCBL All-Star Game for the first time in ten years, and you couldn’t ask for a better night for the late-summer classic. The weather was perfect, and there was no sign of the infamous Chatham fog that disrupts so many games in the summer. The festivities kicked off with the 20th annual Baseball Factory Home Run Hitting Contest. The first ever CCBL Home Run Derby in 1988 was won by Frank Thomas, as he beat out some notable competition that included the likes of Jeff Bagwell, Mo Vaughan, Chuck Knoblauch, and Eric Wedge.
The Class of 2008:
East
Connor Powers (Brewster), Mississippi State
Joseph Sanders (Harwich), Auburn
Angelo Songco (Orleans), Loyola Marymount
West
DeAngelo Mack (Yarmouth-Dennis), South Carolina
Chris Dominguez (Hyannis), Louisville
Kyle Roller (Bourne), East Carolina
Before the eyes of dozens of Major League scouts and over 8,000 other spectators, this year’s crop did not disappoint. Lefties had a distinct advantage at Veterans Field with a 314 porch down the line in right, but for Angelo Songco, it wouldn’t have mattered if it was 350. He was absolutely punishing the ball en route to his victory over DeAngelo Mack in the finals. Both sluggers hit their share of bombs, and a number of their homers cleared the 25 foot high hill that rests beyond the right field fence, landing on the crowded street above.
Although he just missed the finals, Connor Powers also made quite an impression at Veteran’s Field. Hitting from the right side of the plate, He showed serious power to all fields, including one tape measure blast to right center that made it all the way to the street, well over 400 feet away (and nearly clocking me in the back of the head).
Songco won the crown in convincing fashion, hitting the most home runs in the first round, with eight long balls, and then easily winning in the finals with five homers, while still having five outs to spare.
