For the fourth time in the past seven years, the FL's mid-summer classic was tied after nine innings. And for the fourth time since that strange summer of 2002, the big bats made the difference.
The Frontier League's All-Star Game went into Home Run Derby mode Wednesday, with the East Division winning it with second-round power by Washington's Jacob Dempsey and Kalamazoo's Mike Russell. The game was tied at 2 at the end of nine innings, tied again after the first round of derby-ball. But Dempsey and Russell combined to hit three home runs in the second round of the deciding derby, while the West finished with only one. It all added up to an official 3-2 win for the East in the 16th All-Star Game played along baseball's Frontier.
It works out like this: This whole thing started the day after the 2002 Major League All-Star Game ended in a tie when both teams ran out of pitching. When that happened, the FL cooked up a way to one-up the bigs with a home run derby when things are knotted after nine.
And it's stuck since.
The West Division rallied for two runs in the top of the ninth inning to tie the game, and the East couldn't answer in the bottom.
That's when the game went into derby-ball, with Phil Hawke (Windy City), Jason James (Rockford) and Tim Dorn (Southern Illinois) swinging for the West and Angel Molina (Florence), Russell and Dempsey going for the East.
The first round - where each batter is allowed three outs per at-bat - nearly ended things in favor of the West. But, with two outs, Molina planted a tying home run over two difference fences at Traverse City, opening things up for a second round. In that one, Molina didn't even have to swing, with Dempsey hitting one bomb and Russell hitting two in their turns before the West even hit one. It all went down to Dorn, who hit one longball but fell two short for the West, giving the East the win.
As for regulation baseball, Traverse City's Mike Epping - who turned out as the game's MVP - drove in the first run with a fifth-inning single. Billy Mottram, from Florence, drove in the second one with a bloop single to right-center in the sixth - the only runs that scored until the West's big ninth.
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