Thursday, June 29, 2000—THE SOUTH LYON HERALD—as
West All -Stars shine in, the skills competitions:
~ByScott Kelley
SPORTS EDITOR
-
The first-ever HomeTown Newspapers Skills Competition has
gone down in the record books,
‘and for the next year, Livingston
County can hold the bragging.
rights with a sweep of both the
softball and baseball events.
On Wednesday night, participants for the East All-Star team
schools (Novi, Northville, Lake‘land, Milford and South Lyon)
joined participants from the West
sChools ‘(Brighton’, Hartland,
Howell, Pinckney and Fowlerville)
to take part in a skills competi:tion.
For softball, the competitions
consisted of the fastest pitch and
a hitting contest. Baseball consisted of fastest-pitch competition, accuracy throw and a homerun derby. All events were tightly
contested, but in the end, it was
a representative from the West
schools which took first, in each
event.
Over at the baseball diamonds
the evening kicked off with the
fastest-pitch competition. Each
person participating was given
five pitches and each pitched ball
was clocked with a speed gun.
Of the five pitches, the fastest
and slowest were thrown out and
an average was taken by combining the three speeds left over. The
top five average speeds would
then move onto the second round
and the same process would be
repeated and a winner would be
crowned.
This event brought out the top
hurlers in the area, however the
favorite to take home first place
was missing as Novi’s A.J. Rowç
was out of town playing for his
summer baseball club.
But still, the competition was
not without other big names,
including Hartland All-State
pitcher Heath Craven. The first
round drew over 10 participants
as each reached back, hoping to
throw the fastest pitch.
As the first round kicked off,
the early favorite was Tommy
Hughes of Northville. The Mustang topped out at 85 mph, and
averaged just over 83 mph to
briefly take first place. Craven
then stepped up tp with some
hard and very consistent throwing~-‘The Eagle ace threw five
pitches, all of which were clocked
at 84 mph.
But the consistency was about
to be matched. Two pitchers
later, Howell’s Kane Clark did
exactly the same thing, throwing
five pitches at 84 mph.. The two
tied for first moving on to the
second round. Also advancing
wer~eHughes of Northville with
the third fastest, Howell’s Jason
Jacobs and Pinckney?s Chris
Kouris.
in the finals, it once again
came down to Craven and Clark.
Craven did manage to top, out at
85 mph twice to come back with
another average of 84 mph. Clark
then stepped up and threw his
first two pitches at — you
guessed it — 84 mph. But one
pitch just barely cost him as the
Highlander finished with an average of-83.66. Nobody else came
close and Craven was crowned
the winner.
In the second baseball competition of the night, the festivities
turned to an accuracy throw.
Players threw a ball from about
200 feet out at a 4-by-b target
placed in front of home plate. The
target consisted of different areas
with points on them. This competition also drew another large
turnout.
Leading the way after the first
round was Adam Donovan of
Fowlerville with a total of 45
points. Novi’s Kyle Major was not
far behind in second with 40
points. Also advancing were Howell’s Jason Jacobs, Milford Matt
David and Hartland’s Aaron
Ollila.
The finals proved to be a bit
tougher, but Jason Jacobs found
a way to pull it out with 25
points and the title.
Photos by ALAN WARD
Jennifer Miller of Hartland, left, appears to be pleased to learn she won the hitting portion of the softball skills competition.
Cervi and’ PinckneS”s Craig
Reynolds taking pokes at the
ball.
Finally it was a Highlander
breaking through with the first
home rUn of the day. Howell’s
Andy Gerkin finished the first
round with two homers to take
over first place.
Two batters later, Hartland’s
Eric Kumor stepped up to the
plate. Kumor had missed the second half of the season with a bad
knee which required surgery. But
the Eagle assured all he was
ready to hit in the competition.
And was he ever. Kumor finished
with three home runs to advance
to the finals against Gerkin.
In the finals, each batter was
given five outs this time, and
again. Gerkin came through. The
Howell senior found a way to put
one over the fence and turn up
The final baseball event was
the one event which everybody
was waiting for
the home-run
derby.
The contest drew over 20 participants, the largest of the day.
With a good wind blowing out to
right-center field, it looked like it
would be a left-handed-hitter’s
.day.
In this event, each batter was
given 10. outs. A strike, foul ball
or ‘anything which landed inside
the fence was considered an out.
Surprisingly, the first half of the
lineup yielded no home runs,
even with power hitters such as
No’V’is’ Mitch’ M’aiët and’ John
the heat on Kumor.
The Eagle junior took on the
pressure and launched the first
pitch over the fence to tie the
contest up. A couple pitches
later, Kumor capped off the win
with another home run to lay
claim to the title.
While things were heating tip at
the baseball diamond, the softball field was also seeing quite a
show.
The first contest of the day was
a hitting contest. In this contest,
each hitter had to hit the ball in
the air into the outfield. In the
outfield, different zones were set
up and depending on where the
ball landed In the air, certain
points were given.
This competition also drew
some big numbers as all hitters
enjoyed some sort of success But
leading the way by a pretty large
margin was Brighton’s Jullanne
Wilke in the first round with 115
points.
Tied for second was Northville’s
Famiko Kawamura and Hartland
Jennifer Miller in second with 65
points. Also advancing were
Pinckney’s Angela Glbney with 50
points aud Brighton’s Rache,l
Faber with 45 points.
In the finals, again it was a
tightly contested contest, but
Hártland’s Jennifer Miller pulled
It out with a total of 65 points.
Faber took second with 60
points.
Hartland’s Amanda Wallace
took second with an average of
~
in the first round and an
average of 55.66 in the second
round. Pinckney Katharine
George took second with Wilke
finished fourth and Sara Kosin in
fifth place.
The Skills Competition was
part of a two-day affair which
was sponsored for the very first
time by HomeTown Newspapers.
On Thursday, the extravaganza
was capped off by a senior.
East/West All-Star game for both
the softball and baseball players.
In the all-star games, the East
The final, softball event ‘was the team earned revenge as both of
fastest pitch and it was a fresh- the East teams won the softball
man running away with It. .and baseball games to retain.
Brighton’s Jill DeRoche averaged bragging rlght& The competitions
61.66 in both rounds to claim the are sCheduled to be an annual
-affair.
fastest-pitch title.
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