Eight local players advance in HR Derby at Coca-Cola Park

Northwestern's Adam Wehr and Quakertown's Jayson Rathjens lead eight local high school players who advanced through Sunday's preliminary round in qualifying for one of two berths in the Triple-A Home Run Derby at Coca-Cola Park in July.

The eight will return on June 6 to attempt to qualify as one of the two local players who will compete against the Triple-A sluggers in the July 12 derby, held in conjunction with the Triple-A All-Star Game.

The game will be played at Coca-Cola Park on July 14.

Wehr finished with 20 points on a scale that gave one points for clearing a temporary fence set up 40 feet inside the regular fence, three points for a ball that landed on the warning track on the fly or hit the wall, and five points for clearing the regular fence.

Wehr, Rahjens (16 points) and Phillipsburg's Robert Howell were the only hitters to clear the fence. Wehr and Rahjens homered to left, Rahjens reaching the concourse above the bullpen.

Howell was the only participant to hit the ball out to right field, overcoming a stiff breeze blowing in from that direction to put a ball into the drink rails in front of the Bud Light Trough. The homer came after he had recorded nine of his alloted 10 outs (an out was charged on any ball, fair or foul, that didn't result in points) and gave him six points, securing his spot. Whitehall's Carlos Urena (5 points) finished fourth, followed by Nazareth's D.J. King (4), Northampton's Josh Fehnel (3), Bethlehem Catholic's Patrick Walshe (2) and Bangor's Westyn Baylor.

Baylor tied Parkland's Mike Tenaglia, Emmaus' Brady Knerr, Liberty's Tyler Brong, Pen Argyl's Matt Frawley, and Southern Lehigh's Spencer Iverson with one point, forcing the six into a special playoff to determine the final spot. Baylor had two points in the playoff to edge Iverson, who hit one ball over the inner fence. The other four failed to score in the playoff.

Other participants in the preliminary round included Allen's Saire Castro; Central Catholic's Eric Schwartz; Catasauqua's Joe Taves; Dieruff's Davin Pagan; Easton's Justin Pacchioli; Freedom's Pat Devine; Northern Lehigh's Joe Dugan; Notre Dame's Tom Crimi; and Pius X's Anthony Casciano Jr.

At last summer's derby in Portland, Ore., local high school star Kevin Taylor thrilled a crowd of almost 10,000 by clubbing eight home runs in the first round to take the lead after the first round.

Taylor reached the semifinals along with Scranton/Wilkes-Barre's Shelley Duncan, Salt Lake's Terry Evans and Chad Hufman of the hometown Portland Beavers but didn't hit any in the semifinals and failed to advance.

Huffman, who along with Evans edged the IronPigs' Andy Tracy by a tiebreaker (all three hit five homers in the opening round but Huffman and Evans advanced because they had hit more homers in the regular season up to that point than Tracy), eventually beat Duncan 5-1 in the finals to win the competition. Huffman received $1,000 for the win ($500 for first place and a $100 bonus for each homer hit in the finals), a laptop computer from a local store and a wooden trophy handcrafted by a local chain-saw artist.

From the Morning Call