Going, going, gone.
Duke baseball standouts Ben Miller and Macon Winslow participated in Major League Baseball’s Home Run Derby X Saturday at the Durham Bulls Athletic Park. Miller teamed up with former MLB star Andruw Jones and professional softball slugger Skylar Wallace. They competed against teams of three, each with college players from North Carolina, N.C. State and UNC Wilmington.
The Home Run Derby X maximized the action on the field with a number of unique rules — including defensive scoring. While one team swung, the other roamed the outfield looking to track down balls that didn’t clear the fence. For every catch, the team on defense received a point.
Scoring on offense was slightly more complicated, as batters had multiple ways to score extra points. A home run hit dead center — marked by two posts that spit smoke for every homer — was worth two points instead of one. And, when players decided they were feeling good, they could call for a hot streak — multiplying the score of the next five swings by two.
Miller, Jones and Wallace’s team — named the Durham Bulls for the event — started against Los Toros Bravos, led by MLB legend Manny Ramirez. Jones led off for the Bulls and nailed 10 long shots. While his fair share were in the target zone, the Bulls’ nine catches on defense propelled them to a three-point lead after the first rotation.
That lead was erased in Round 2, though, as Wallace struggled to find consistency in her swing. After Wolfpack sophomore Chris McHugh mashed a monsterous 19 bombs, Miller came up to the plate as the final batter with his squad trailing by 35.
Miller was ready to answer the call, but even his round-high 30 points could not bring his team back. His smashes were spread all over the field, including a number of moonshots that cleared the seats and bounced off the windows adorning the office buildings behind the stadium.
As an intermission after Miller’s game, Winslow and athletes from the other three schools competed in their own contest. The goal was to hit a home run into the target zone in center field, and the first player to do so — within a 30 second window — would win $4,000 for charity. Winslow led off, and after a few near misses, he ended the competition with a moonshot to center.
The structure of the main event, while somewhat complicated compared to a traditional Home Run Derby, is aimed at creating a more interactive and enjoyable fan experience. Each team of three competed head-to-head against another, with Los Toros Bravos and the Durham Bull Sharks advancing to the championship.
The first notable change was a massive platform in the center of the infield from which the athletes swung. Instead of taking pitches from home plate, batters got about a 60-foot head start to get the ball over the fence. To compensate, the foul lines were narrowed to shrink the playing area.
Once heavy hitters started getting in rhythm, fans made their way to track down the longest moonshots on the upper concourse. The dimensions also ensured that, for most batters, more than 50% of swings resulted in homers.
Miller and Winslow will compete with Duke in its fall schedule, and take the field next semester as the Blue Devils once again look to break down the doors to Omaha.
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Dom Fenoglio is a Trinity junior and a sports managing editor of The Chronicle's 120th volume.