MONEY Athletic Foundation

Swinging success: Home Run Derby Another Smash Hit

By Ken Waltz
VillageSoup/Knox County Times News/Sports Director

ROCKPORT (May 27): After successfully keeping their eyes on the pitches and taking many mighty swings, Jake Arthers, Dylan Maloney and Zac Durkee were the top bash brothers during Sunday's popular fundraising home run derby.

The Mikail R. Russo, More Opportunities for NEighborhood Youth, MONEY Athletic Foundation held its seventh annual home run derby and raffle on Sunday at the Rockport Recreation Field.

Belfast Area High School's Jake Arthers connects during Sunday's MONEY Athletic Foundation Home Run Derby at the Rockport Recreation Field. Arthers went on to win the high school portion of the event after defeating Camden Hills' Zac Dufour in a second tiebreaker. (Photo by Daniel O'Connell)

Arthers of Belfast Area High School beat Zac Dufour of Camden Hills Regional High School in two tiebreakers for the high school home run crown, while Maloney of the Thomaston/St. George squad won the middle school title. Durkee, a former high school champ in the event, captured the adult/non team division.

Paul Russo, father of the late Mikail Russo, for whom the event is held, said he was "happy with the turnout." There were 17 high school batters, 13 middle school hitters and about 25 adult swingers.

This year's event raised about $7,000, Paul Russo said. In seven years, the event has raised about $72,000.

Camden Hills' Zac Dufour connects during second-round action. Looking on in the background are, from left, Rockland's Anderson Murphy and Georges Valley's Nick Lemieux and Brandon Staples. (Photo by Daniel O'Connell)

The top raffle ticket sellers were Matt Eaton (127 tickets at $5 apiece for $635) and Alex Bryant (46 tickets at $5 for $230). Both children attend Lincolnville Central School. Both received Boston Red Sox tickets for different June games.

Lincolnville Central School sold the most team tickets, totaling $1,140.

Middle-schoolers, high-schoolers and adults batted, trying to hit balls over several fences that lined the outfield. Each fence was worth different numbers of points. Refreshments were offered under the direction of Terrance "Fitzy" Fitzpatrick.

High school and middle school student-athletes sold raffle tickets to become eligible to compete in the derby. Each athlete had to sell 10 tickets to take part in the competition. The athletes competed for individual and team sales honors and for individual home run honors.

Lincolnville Central School's Matt Eaton takes a cut during middle school competition. Eaton led the way Sunday by selling $635 in raffle tickets and was rewarded with four tickets to a Red Sox game. (Photo by Daniel O'Connell)

After the team competitions, the derby event was opened to all who wanted to take swings for a good cause. With a donation of $20, fans received a derby T-shirt and took 10 swings in an attempt to become the open champion.

Raffle prizes included tickets to New England sporting events (including Red Sox tickets), gift certificates to Midcoast restaurants, rounds of golf, overnight stays at hotels and lobster.

All proceeds go directly to benefit young athletes. In the past six years the MONEY Athletic Foundation has awarded more than $65,000 in grants, and to date has helped more than 250 children go to summer camp, participate on travel teams, attend Outward Bound and purchase equipment.

The home run derby results were:

High school

The event was decided in a tiebreaker. The batters had 10 outs (all hits except home runs were outs) in the first two rounds and Arthers and Dufour both had five swings in the two tiebreaking rounds. In the first tiebreaker, the two both had five points and in the second tiebreaker, Arthers finished with seven and Dufour six.

In the first round, the point totals were: David McGuire of Rockland, 40; Arthers of Belfast, 30; Gabe Blodgett of Camden Hills, 31; Billy-Ray Denman and Dufour of Camden Hills, 24; Anderson Murphy of Rockland and Nick Lemieux of Georges Valley, 17; Taylor Williamson of Medomak Valley, 16; Tyler Patterson and Luke Morrill of Rockland, 15; Nick Little of Rockland, 13; Brandon Staples, 11; Marcus Benner of Medomak Valley, nine; Gordon Fischer of Camden Hills, eight; Derek Bernosky of Belfast, five; Chris Hart of Camden Hills, four; and Taylor Gartley of Camden Hills, one. Morrill was last year's middle school champ.

In the second round (top eight from the first round advance), the point totals were: Arthers and Dufour, 31; Blodgett, 27; Lemieux, 19; Murphy, 13; Williamson, eight; and Denman and McGuire, five. Scoring started anew in the second round.

Middle school

In the first round, the point totals were: Maloney of St. George/Thomaston, six; Chris Brown of Lincolnville, four; Joey Bartlett of Lincolnville and Brendan Hall of Rockland, two; and Stephen Paul, Caleb Cook and Larry Dyer of Belfast, Adam Carlsen and Marshall Crockett of Camden-Rockport, Sam Simmons of Rockland, Drew Townsend of St. George/Thomaston, Jake Davee of Hope-Appleton, and Matt Eaton of Lincolnville, all no points.

In the second round (all players advanced from the first round and the results of the two rounds were combined), the point totals were: Maloney, 10; Brown, seven; Bartlett, Paul and Carlsen, three; Hall and Simmons, two; Dyer, one; and Crockett, Cook, Townsend, Eaton and Davee, all no points.

Adults

The adults/non team participants were: John Moro, John Bonney, Durkee, Shawn Hiller, Crosby Johnson, Andrew Rogers, Rory O'Donnell, Seth Crockett, Megan Robinson, Matt Rector, Laura Groce, Aaron Shields, Tim Crockett, David Paul, Paul MacDonald, Paul Leeper, Eddie Crockett, J.D. Rainey, Mattie Crockett, Jake Crockett, Ted Crockett, Ethan Spaulding, Keegan Russo and Paul Russo.

The top hitters were: Durkee, 30 points; Moro, 27; Paul Russo, 20; Bonney, 14; Rainey, 12; Rogers and Seth Crockett, 11; and Keegan Russo, 10.

VillageSoup/Knox County Times Photographer Daniel O'Connell contributed to this story.