The participants are set for the Saltwater Splashdown, this year’s West Coast League All-Star Game Home Run Derby to be held in the Port Angeles harbor. The event will be the most unique All-Star Game Home Run Derby in WCL history.

The night before the All-Star Game, on Monday, July 16, going deep will be going splash in the very first Saltwater Splashdown hosted by the Port Angeles Lefties. Rather than blasting baseballs over the fence, in a ballpark, participants will blast away from a raised platform at Hollywood Beach over a rope connected to anchors more than 300 feet offshore in the Port Angeles Harbor. The derby starts at 6:35 pm.

“I’ve attended many of MLB’s Home Run Derbies and, just being honest here, most of them were largely snooze fests. So I was thrilled when told of Port Angeles’s plans this year. A Splash Fest in the Strait of Juan de Fuca? I don’t ever wanna go back!,” said WCL commissioner Rob Neyer.

The event will include Kelowna’s Trent Tinglestad, who is tied for the most home runs in the North Division with seven and who leads the WCL in hitting with a .365 batting average. The University of Louisiana Monroe commit has been a standout for the Falcons throughout the season and is also tied for the WCL lead in RBI with 28.

The hometown fans will be represented by University of Houston slugger Ron Brown of the Lefties. The Houston native has hit four home runs in 19 games for Port Angeles this summer.

Saltwater Splashdown Lineup:

Bellingham Bells: Matt James of Notre Dame
Bend Elks: Tynan Holmstrom of Union College
Corvallis Knights: Cody Hawken of Portland
Cowlitz Black Bears: Ryan Kim of Portland
Kelowna Falcons: Trent Tinglestad of Louisiana-Monroe
Port Angeles Lefties: Ron Brown of Houston
Portland Pickles: Joey Cooper of Cal State Northridge
Victoria HarbourCats: Jeddediah Fagg of Georgia Southern
Walla Walla Sweets: Zack Penrod of Northwest Nazarene
Wenatchee AppleSox: Jeremy Yelland of Hawaii
Yakima Valley Pippins: Cole Pofek of UC Riverside

The Derby will consist of three rounds. In Round 1, each batter will receive 10 “free pitches” to attempt to hit home runs. After that, each batter will receive 10 “strikes” to pad his home run total. A “strike” will be a hit ball or an umpire-called strike if a batter takes a pitch. The top three batters will advance to the second round, with the same parameters as the first round. The third (championship) round will feature the top scores from the first and second rounds.

The 2018 West Coast League All-Star Game is set for Tuesday, July 17th at Civic Field in Port Angeles. First pitch is scheduled for 6:35 pm.

Since the announcement of this year’s All-Star Game North and South rosters this past Tuesday, there have been two changes – one to the South roster and the other to the North squad. Corvallis Knights outfielder Cody Hawken of University of Portland is replacing slugger Zander Clarke of the Portland Pickles who recently signed with the San Francisco Giants; and Port Angeles Lefties slugger Ron Brown of University of Houston is replacing Jake Moberg of the Yakima Valley Pippins (due to injury).

Below are the updated rosters for the 2018 WCL All-Star Game:

NORTH

C – Cory Meyer of Boise State (Wenatchee AppleSox)
C – Matt James of Notre Dame (Bellingham Bells)
1B – Kyle Schimpf of Southeastern Louisiana (Port Angeles Lefties)
1B – Ron Brown of Houston (Port Angeles Lefties)
2B – Jason Dicochea of Santa Clara (Port Angeles Lefties)
SS – Ernie Yake of Gonzaga (Bellingham Bells)
INF – Mason Marenco of Gonzaga (Wenatchee AppleSox)
3B – *Jake Moberg of UCLA (Yakima Valley Pippins)
OF – Dalton Harum of Virginia Tech (Port Angeles Lefties)
OF – Trent Tinglestad of Louisiana at Monroe (Kelowna Falcons)
OF – Cole Pofek of UC Riverside (Yakima Valley Pippins)
OF – Jeddediah Fagg of Georgia Southern (Victoria HarbourCats)
OF – Dan Pruitt of Seminole State (Kelowna Falcons)
P – Justin Armbruester of Pacific Lutheran (Bellingham Bells)
P – Taylor Davis of Gonzaga (Bellingham Bells)
P – Cal Hehnke of Nebraska-Omaha (Kelowna Falcons)
P – Tristan Busse of Western Texas (Port Angeles Lefties)
P – Garrett Goodall of Embry-Riddle (Victoria HarbourCats)
P – Tyler Yoshihara of Pomona-Pitzer (Victoria HarbourCats)
P – Curtis Bafus of VCU (Wenatchee AppleSox)
P – Jeremy Yelland of Hawaii (Wenatchee AppleSox)
P – Chase Farrell of UCLA (Yakima Valley Pippins)

SOUTH

C – Dutton Elske of Portland (Cowlitz Black Bears)
C – Cole Hamilton of Linn-Benton CC (Corvallis Knights)
INF – Nick Nyquist of Gonzaga (Walla Walla Sweets)
INF – Chad Stevens of Portland (Corvallis Knights)
INF – Gio Diaz of St. Mary’s (Portland Pickles)
INF – Collin Runge of Portland (Bend Elks)
INF – Tristen Alvarez of Fresno Pacific (Bend Elks)
OF – Joey Cooper of Cal State Northridge (Portland Pickles)
OF – *Zander Clarke of UC San Diego (Portland Pickles)
OF – Chandler Anderson of Utah (Corvallis Knights)
OF – Cesar Loper of Cal Poly Pomona (Walla Walla Sweets)
OF – Ryan Kim of Portland (Cowlitz Black Bears)
OF – Cody Hawken of Portland (Corvallis Knights)
P – Landen Bourassa of San Francisco (Corvallis Knights)
P – Daniel Slominski of San Francisco (Corvallis Knights)
P – Zach Heaton of Dallas Baptist (Cowlitz Black Bears)
P – Darius Vines of Arizona State (Walla Walla Sweets)
P – Zack Penrod of Northwest Nazarene (Walla Walla Sweets)
P – Brad McVay of Portland (Portland Pickles)
P – Connor Pellerin of Tulane (Portland Pickles)
P – Michael Newstrom of Washington State (Portland Pickles)
P – Bradley Gonzales of Dallas Baptist (Bend Elks)

* replaced
Note: Universities and colleges noted are where players will be enrolled this upcoming school year.
ABOUT THE WEST COAST LEAGUE

The West Coast League (WCL) is the premier summer collegiate baseball league west of the Mississippi. The 14-year-old, 11-team, professionally operated wood-bat league located in the beautiful Pacific Northwest showcases pro prospects from major national conferences from June through the middle of August. The WCL features an unparalleled history of memorable fan and player experiences, and the best summer weather in North America. In 2018, 72 players with WCL experience were selected in Major League Baseball’s June amateur draft. 271 WCL alums appeared or were active in affiliated professional baseball in 2017, including 31 in the major leagues, such as 2015 home-run leader Chris Davis (Baltimore); record-breaking rookie slugger Rhys Hoskins (Philadelphia); rising star pitchers James Paxton (Seattle) and Matt Boyd (Detroit); and 2018 AL All-Star outfielder Mitch Haniger (Seattle). Overall member attendance was 412,392 last summer, an increase of nearly nine percent year to year.