ST. PAUL, Minn. -- It's All-Star week for Independent Baseball, and the festivities kicked off on Monday night with a celebrity softball game and the annual league home-run derby, which was won by Curt Smith of Lincoln.
Lackluster celebrity softball game starts the night
The softball game featured mostly local celebrities, as the two team captains were two radio personalities Falen Lambert and Paul Lambert, who despite working for competing radio stations, are a married couple.
Other than featuring a couple of Minnesota Wild players, the softball game featured no celebrities who would be recognizable to an average person, and it showed, as the bleachers were not filled very much, as shown in the picture below.
Despite the lack of noticeable names, the game itself turned out to be a good one, as team Sauce jumped out to a 7-1 lead, but Team Fallen stormed back with a three-run second inning, although they gave back two of the runs in the third. They did make a comeback in the ninth, but only after they switched jerseys with the real All-Stars, but they came up a run short, as Team Sauce took home a 10-9 win.
After the softball game came a performance by local country band The Chris Hawkey Band, for which the fans were allowed onto the field. The fans were more interested in meeting the All-Stars than about watching a concert.
Once the fans were cleared from the field, the league home run derby began, featuring eight of the best home-run hitters in the league. The local fans were cheering for two Saints players, Alonzo Harris and Tony Thomas, who replaced Angelo Songco after he suffered an elbow injury on Friday night in Lincoln. The non-Saint favorite was Burt Reynolds of the Texas Airhogs, who leads the league with 21 home runs.
Surprisingly, Smith did not even make it out of the first round, as he was the only player to hit 0 home runs. Smith hit 10 homers to lead the round, while Harris had seven. Josh Mazzola and Marcus Nidiffer rounded out the four who went to the semifinals.
Both semifinals ended with a walk-off, as Harris defeated Mazzola 5-4, while Smith beat Nidiffer 4-3 to set up a finals matchup. In the finals, Harris hit just one home run, but Smith needed eight swings to hit two home runs and get the derby title.
“I felt good,” Harris said after the game. “I’m not a big guy, so I was glad to be able to represent the small leadoff guys well.”
Coming up
The All-Star festivities will continue on Tuesday with the league All-Star game, featuring the North team, comprised of players from the North and Central divisions, and the South team, comprised of players from the South division and the Can-Am League. Saints right-hander Mark Hamburger will start the game for the North.