The Home Run Derby made its return to the Opterra Solutions Invitational at River Bluff High School on March 4 after a two-year hiatus. 

The eight participants, fans and those contributing to benefit St. Baldrick's Childhood Cancer Research Funding truly had a “blast” in The Swamp.

With a $50 donation for every ball hit over or in some cases over the building behind rightfield, this year’s event lived up to its theme of “Batting for St. Baldricks”.  A total of 97 home runs were hit in the two rounds, resulting in $4,700.

This year’s Home Run Derby champion, P.J. Morlando of Summerville was nearly singlehandedly responsible for half the total. In fact, his event record 26 home runs in the first round eclipsed the combined total of the next two highest totals from River Bluff’s Beau Hollins with 12 and Dorman’s Mitch Wilson with 11.

The final was set between Hollins and Morlando. After Hollins finished with eight home runs, Morlando quickly matched that total with powerful swings which sent the baseballs high into the night sky and over the fences.

Closing in on victory, Morlando decided to add some flair to his performance. He took a timeout, went to the dugout and returned to Homeplate with a wooden bat.

His first swing clinched him the Home Run Derby title and proceeded to add seven more homers to his final round total of 16.

In all, Morlando tallied 42 home runs - seven more than the combined total of the six non-finalists.

Hollins did not leave the event empty-handed, however. He also received the first “Fan Favorite” award for receiving the most donations in his name from those predicting the winner of the Home Run Derby.

Along with the fund-raising, the event recognized those beneficiaries of St. Baldrick’s work. This group included Matthew Lawrence, Mattie Garris, Brayden Sox (leukemia survivor) , Logan Busbee, Preston Sutton, Hampton Schulz ( wilms tumor) Catherine Tucker (leukemia- cancer free).