LITTLE FALLS-- With over 70 total home runs hit in the competition, and plenty of moonshots,
the 2022 ABCCL Home Run Derby was filled with excitement from start to finish.

The field started at 12, with each team in the league having a representative. The format of the
derby included three rounds, lasting two minutes each with one 30-second timeout per round.
The top five totals advanced to round two, and the two best from round two advanced to the
finals.

RJ Menhert led with eight homers in the first round, slugging at a pace better than anyone in
the field. He hit five of his bombs before taking his timeout just about halfway through his
round, whereas much of the rest of the competitors performed better after the break.

Evan Urglavitch hit the furthest balls out of anyone in the contest with his seven in the first
round. The lefty used the right field line to his advantage, and at Yogi Berra Stadium was
putting balls at the top of a steep hill beyond the fence behind the foul pole. On the other side
of the plate, Nick Vega and Paul Hamilton also had their share of towering blasts, both hitting a
ball off the jumbotron in left field.

Christian Bauman, Menhert, Urglavitch, Vega, and Hamilton all advanced to the second round.
While the rest of the field slowed down a bit in production in the second round, Bauman picked
things up. The Radford University outfielder hit a slew of no-doubters after his timeout for the
highest total of the second round with seven. Nick Vega would meet him in the finals after
continuing his tear of high blasts and finishing with six in round two, just one shy of his first-
round total.

In the finals, Vega went first and simply ran out of gas. The balls off his bat were still scorched,
but many fell just shy of the wall as he finished with three homers.

For Bauman, he showed no drop-off and picked up right where he left off at the end of the
second round. With the magic number for the Homerun Derby crown set at four, he wasted no
time and started his assault on baseballs as soon as the timer started. With plenty of time to
spare in the round, Bauman easily clinched his championship trophy.