The Coastal Plain League All-Star Show concluded in Lexington July 19 after an entertaining, extra innings All-Star game where the East division defeated the West 8-6 in ten innings. 

The game capped off a two-day event that included a skills challenge July 18 and the exhibition game July 19. It was the second time the event has been held in Lexington County and the third time the event has ever been hosted by the Blowfish with the first event being in Columbia. 

“Most importantly, this All-Star game was about the All-Stars being showcased and important to the Blowfish, is showcasing Lexington County and all that we have to offer,” Blowfish co-owner Bill Shanahan said. “I think Lexington County proves itself again tonight that we can stand out above the rest, put on a great show and all the families in our community and all the guests and tourists that came and families from all over the northeast and south said ‘Wow, Lexington County baseball stadium is a green diamond jewel and this community is hitting a home run and this is where I want to be.’”

The showcasing began July 18 with three skills challenge events: a bunting competition, a pitching competition and a home run derby. All three events were team based and points were totaled from each participant and funneled into a total score for each division. 

Blowfish All-Star outfielder Dariyan Pendergrass took part in the bunting competition and after a slow start, was able to land a few bunts on the target mats along the first and third base lines.

“Bunting the ball was the first part but once you got that down, the pad was actually kind of slick and you had to find the right bat path and bat angle to the ball just to slow it down to stay on top of the path,” Pendergrass said. “But other than that, it was fun, I enjoyed it.”

The West and East All-Stars tied the bunting competition but the West took a little bit of a lead after the pitching competition. The pitching competition was a timed event where pitchers had to knock off as many of the six standing baseball bats on an elevated platform as they could. 

Blowfish All-Star pitcher Cade Bouknight participated in the unique event and found it to be a challenging, but entertaining experience.

“See, they told me they were supposed to be like bowling pins and I was gonna hit one time and everything was going to fall over but it didn’t work that way,” Bouknight laughed. “I was hitting literally everything except for the bat so it was fun.”

The East division took over in the final event: the home run derby. Despite the overall group not winning the event, Blowfish All-Star catcher Ryan Ouzts hit 12 home runs in his three minutes at the plate and says the professionals make home run derbies look much easier than what they are.

“It’s a big difference because pro guys, they look tired but you have no idea exactly how tired they are until you actually do one,” Ouzts said. 

The East division won the overall competition but the highlight of the night was the appearance of former major league slugger Mark Reynolds, who hit 298 career home runs with the Arizona Diamondbacks, Baltimore Orioles, Cleveland Indians, New York Yankees, Milwaukee Brewers, St. Louis Cardinals, Colorado Rockies and Washington Nationals. 

Reynolds took part in the home run derby with his production in the first 90 seconds going towards the East division and the second 90 second period counting for the West division. Before taking part in the event, Reynolds told the Chronicle that he hadn’t swung a bat since he retired in 2019 and that “This might be bad”. 

Reynolds shook off the rust and still managed to hit one home run for the East and two for the West. Reynolds, who also played in the Coastal Plain League when he was in college, was named as the honorary manager for the East during the All-Star game. Former Blowfish manager and current Columbia International head coach Jonathan Johnson was named honorary manager for the West.

The All-Star game did not disappoint. Macon Bacon third baseman Jarrett Jenkins hit a solo home run to start the scoring in the bottom of the second inning for the West but the East responded with a Mason Dunaway RBI infield single to tie the game in the next half inning for the first of multiple ties the game experienced.

Pendergrass eventually broke the tie after he scored following Ouzts reaching base by way of shortstop error. He went two-for-two on the night with a pair of singles and a run. 

The West took a 3-1 lead after that inning but the East responded in the top of the sixth. They put up three runs in that inning and took the lead, 4-3, after Cole Garrett knocked an RBI double off the leftfield wall to score Luke Nowak. 

The West steadied the ship when Bouknight came in to pitch and allowed only one hit while striking out two batters and not surrendering a run.

“I came out here with one goal and that was to compete,” Bouknight said. “I thought my performance was pretty good tonight. I mean, I gave up a barrel hit but other than that, I thought the pitching was pretty good. 

West All-Star Antonio Brown reached base and stole second and third before G. Allen singled to left field to tie the game at four in the bottom of the seventh.

After the East took a 5-4 lead in the top of the ninth, Blowfish All-Star Cooper Blauser from Clemson led off the crucial bottom of the ninth with a base-hit single. He then stole second base to get himself into scoring position and moved to third on a wild throw by the catcher. After two straight strikeouts put the West down to their final out, Drew Lanphere drew a walk and Tyler McPeak hit a single past second base to score Blauser and tie the game at five, which is where the score would stand after nine innings and send the game to extra innings. 

The West, with errors and walks, fell apart in the top of the tenth and surrendered three runs. Their rebuttal in the bottom of the tenth came in the form of only one inadequate run and the East All-Stars won 8-6 in ten innings.

Despite the late game heroics, the East wouldn’t win the game without the play of the night which came from Peninsula Pilot and Howard University outfielder Henry Garcia. In the bottom of the seventh inning, Blauser hit a blast out to left field which looked like it was well on its way to being a two-run home run until Garcia and his glove intervened.

Garcia tracked down the ball, sized up the left field wall and reached over it to catch the ball while almost flipping over the wall completely. It was a remarkable play that got one of the loudest ovations of the night. 

“To be honest, when I seen it off the bat, I knew I had a shot and I just went for it,” Garcia said about the acrobatic play. “I can measure the wall as I ran towards it and in left field, that wall isn’t that high so I knew I had a shot for it and went for it.”

Shanahan was also blown away by that play.

“We created that left field wall short for those types of instances,” Shanahan said. “I’ve only seen once before a great catch [in left field] but not as great a catch like I saw tonight. He not only jumped up over that short fence, he literally went down behind the fence, caught it and brought it back up. That should be on ESPN.”

Wilson’s Shane Rademacher earned pitcher of the night honors for the East after he struck out all three batters in the only inning he pitched. 

Morehead City’s Joe Mershon earned hitter of the night honors after his three-for-four appearance at the plate with a double and a run.

With the All-Star festivities now in the rearview, Shanahan looks forward to an exciting ending to the season with the Blowfish in prime position to make a deep run after their recent hot streak.

“We won a championship in 2012 in Columbia and we got in the playoffs our first year in 2015 in Lexington County and we have not been back since so we are hungry and we are passionate. This team has come together with some incredible chemistry with a great young coach who’s leading these guys each and every day to want to be the best they can be for Lexington County.”