Surviving three rounds of competition, senior Cassandra Connor won the home run derby, held in Caswell Park on Friday after the Clippers’ game against St. Clair/Loyola and the conference award ceremony that followed.
Connor was pitted against four other Valley Conference sluggers and one from TCU, which participated in the single-game tournament because the Valley has seven teams.
Set up between the pitching rubber and home plate, contestants swung at soft tosses, so a homer was really the result of the batters working in tandem with the throwing partner they chose, although the batters could let pitches they didn’t like go by.
For Connor, airmailing softballs over the fence required the ball low in the zone, and Connor practiced with assistant coach Rich Kern, who was her delivery man for the contest as well.
“That was the strategy. We had only two practices, but we got it down.”
The first round started with 10 swinging attempts. Connor knocked out three, the same as one other contender. She sent over two of seven attempts to win the final round, one more than her competition.
Connor said the key to being a power hitter is lots of extra practice.
“My dad (Bill Connor) always takes me.”
So far this season, Connor has eight home runs, six more than last season and including two from earlier in the day. She hit at least one homer in the 2022 season.