Chase Illig of the Bellingham Bells (West Virginia) hit his sixth home run of the season on Sunday night within the familiar confines of Joe Martin Field. He had no issue transferring that power over to Yakima County Stadium last night, as he blasted 11 home runs in round one and cruised to a wire-to-wire victory in the 2017 West Coast League Home Run Derby presented by Wildhorse Casino.

Illig, a powerful left-handed batter, who catches for the Bells, got off to a great start as the fourth hitter in round one among the field of ten, and his 11 homers paced the group. He did have some early competition, however, from Nick Nyquist of the Walla Walla Sweets (Gonzaga), Taylor Wright of the Kelowna Falcons (Maryland) and Hunter Vansau of the Victoria HarbourCats (Mississippi State), who each blasted nine homers to advance to round two. Evan Johnson of the Wenatche AppleSox (Northern Colorado) came up just short hitting eight, as did Jordan Qsar of Corvallis (Pepperdine) with seven, while Lucas Denney of the Yakima Valley Pippins (Seattle U), Devlin Granberg of the Cowlitz Black Bears (Dallas Baptist) and Ian Nowak of the Port Angeles Lefties (UC Riverside) each hit five. Jack Pauly of the Bend Elks (Northern Colorado) managed just one long ball in round one.

In round two, Wright and Vansau each paced the group early with six home runs until Illig hit seven with four outs remaining in his round and decided to stop there. Nyquist fell just short with five home runs.

In the final, Wright and Vansau each struggled to just two long balls, setting the stage for Illig, who hit three home runs in his redshirt freshman campaign with the Mountaineers. The Bluefield, West Virginia native collected two home runs with six outs remaining in his final round and then blasted a towering shot over the right field fence for the winning home run to take home the title.

To read more about the All-Star Game Home Run Derby, check out the story in the Yakima Herald titled Bellingham’s Illig cruises to Home Run Derby title by clicking here.

With the derby over, the 2017 WCL All-Star Game presented by Target Zero is set to take center-stage on Tuesday night. Yesterday, the probable starters from each side were announced with Nick Bonniksen of the Port Angeles Lefties (Dixie State, 4-0, 3.08 ERA) getting the start for the North while Connor White of the Yakima Valley Pippins (Portland, 6 saves, 1.97 ERA) will get the game started for the South.

Fans can listen to the game on KUTI-1460 ESPN Yakima or via the online stream here: http://1460espnyakima.com/listen-live/popup/ with pregame coverage beginning at 6:45 p.m. Jack Benjamin (voice of the Yakima Valley Pippins) and Ben Farber (voice of the Walla Walla Sweets) will call the action with first pitch scheduled for 7:05 p.m. from Yakima County Stadium.

To check out the complete North and South All-Star Game rosters, please click here.

ABOUT THE WEST COAST LEAGUE

The West Coast League is the premier summer collegiate baseball league west of the Mississippi. The 13-year-old, 11-team, professionally operated wood-bat league located in the beautiful Pacific Northwest features pro prospects from major conferences across the nation and an unparalleled history out west of great fan and player experiences in addition to the best summer weather in North America. 82 players with WCL experience were selected in the MLB 2017 June draft. In 2016, more than 230 WCL alums appeared in affiliated professional baseball including 28 in the major leagues, such as 2015 home-run leader Chris Davis (Baltimore), 2015 NL Rookie of the Year runner-up Matt Duffy (Tampa Bay) and rising star pitchers Matt Andriese (Tampa Bay), Matt Boyd (Detroit) and James Paxton (Seattle); and outfielder Mitch Haniger (Arizona, now Seattle). Overall member attendance was 379,611 in 2016.