A pair of Oregon preps will have the opportunity to take their hacks alongside professional baseball players at the American Family Insurance High School Home Run Derby on July 13, held in conjunction with the Pacific Coast League and International League All-Star Game.
The All-Star game is set for Wednesday while the home run derby is Monday at 7 p.m. Both events will be held at PGE Park in Portland.
The home run derby is part of a special promotion by American Family Insurance and has included a season-long competition that has allowed high school baseball players throughout the state to compete for a spot in the final home run derby Monday.
Sid Jensen of Hillsboro and Kevin Taylor of Sunset finished as the top two qualifiers and will compete with six other Triple A players in Monday’s contest. The professional players will use wooden bats while Taylor and Jensen will use metal bats.
Contestants received five points for a home run, three points for a ball hit off the wall on the fly, one point for a ball hit to the warning track and a quarter of a point for a ball that rolled to the fence. Each contestant was able to hit until he accumulated 12 outs.
Jensen was easily the top contestant in the home run derby qualifiers. While no other participant finished with more than eight points, Jensen scored a whopping 19.75 points to claim the top spot.
Jensen, who just completed his junior year, was one of the top hitters at Hillsboro this year, batting .356 with five doubles and three home runs. He earned All-Northwest Oregon Conference second team honors this year.
Taylor brings a full resume to the home run derby. Named the Metro League player of the year, Taylor was also named the 6A state player of the year in Oregon after batting .480 with 11 home runs. He led the Sunset Apollos to a third place finish in the Metro League and a berth in the 6A state quarterfinals. He’ll attend Western Nevada next year. He scored 7.5 points in his qualifying home run derby to finish second behind Jensen.
Tickets for the home run derby are available at the PGE Park box office. Cost is $9.
