Former Detroit Tiger Jeff Jackowiak threw out the first pitch on Thursday. (Daily Star photo/AMELIO RODRIGUEZ)

By AMELIO RODRIGUEZ

Niles Daily Star

The Cal Ripken Ohio Valley Regional tournament got under way Thursday night at the Brandywine Firemen’s Youth Park, with the opening ceremony festivities.

The evening started with a dinner for all 12 teams and their families, and was followed with a Parade of Champions introducing all of the teams to the crowd on hand.

After all the teams were introduced, league president, Jamie Stover introduced the guest speakers for the evening, former league president and current Niles Township Treasurer Jim Ringler  and former Detroit Tiger Jeff Jackowiak.

Ringler talked about how he played on this same field some 45 years ago, although it has undergone some changes since then. The most notable of those changes is the new fence, which was moved back 45-feet from where it had been for years, just completed this week.

Jackowiak talked about how he had been a little league ball player just like all of the kids there, and how with some hard work he was able to make his way to the big leagues.

“I’ve seen kids that didn’t have that great of talent that became stars, and kids that had great talent that didn’t become stars, and the difference was hard work”, Jackowiak said.

The highlight of the night for all the players was the homerun derby.

Each team designated two players to participate in the derby, with the top five advancing to the second round. After two rounds, the top two would advance to the finals. Each kid would be allowed nine outs, which consisted of any ball swung at that did not leave the park.

Although many kids were able to hit balls that were deep enough to leave the “old park,” only two were able to hit them deep enough to get out of the “new park.” Both of those players then advanced on to the finals, and both were from the same team.  Kainen Bibb and C.J. Bush, both from Southeast Lexington Kentucky, put on a show as they each hit some long towering homeruns easily clearing the outfield fence.

Bibb hit two long balls and several more off the eight-foot high fence in the first round, while Bush hit three. With both players advancing to the finals, neither player would hit a homerun in their first nine outs. Since the count started over in the finals, both players had zero homeruns so they went another round. In the final round Bibb hit a line drive shot over the center field fence, but it was the monster shot that Bush hit over the center field fence that was the difference as it was his second of the final, making him the homerun derby champion.

With that, the festivities came to an end, and the tournament officially gets under way Friday morning at 10 am.

“I want to thank all the public for helping us get this park ready. There have been a lot of people in this community that have helped us out. The kids have enjoyed it. We have gotten a lot of compliments. And it looks like it is going to be an exciting tournament as we are now going to have some true baseball hits, like doubles and triples, so we are going to have some fun out here. So if the people want to see some good baseball, they need to come out and enjoy it,” Stover concluded.