Carleigh Baugher – a Winner at Second Place in Little League World Series Softball Division Home Run Derby

Legendary University of Alabama football coach Paul “Bear” Bryant is attributed with the observation that “Winning isn’t everything, but it sure beats anything that comes in second.” Royal Examiner decided to ask Carleigh Baugher how she felt about that after returning to Front Royal and Warren County having placed second nationally in the Softball Division of the Little League World Series Home Run Derby in South Williamsport, Pennsylvania.

“I feel really good about it. – If you have belief in yourself and have dedication, you’ll always be a winner,” Carleigh told us about her experience and perspective on, not only the Little League Softball Home Run Derby, but life in general. Of that Little League HR Derby competition she added, “It was great – the amount of opportunities I’ve had from it is crazy. I met a lot of people and made new friends.”

Carleigh Baugher with women’s softball legend Jennie Finch during introductions at South Williamsport, Pa.

Seeded number 4 in Williamsport after winning local and regional competitions, the latter in Arlington, Texas in mid-July, Carleigh went head to head with 2nd-seeded Lacyn Black in the finals televised by ESPN on Friday, August 26, the day after the competition was actually held.

Batting first in the finals, Carleigh set a high bar for Black to beat, hitting 16 home runs in her two minutes at the plate, including seven in the last 35 seconds and three on her last three swings of the bat. But seeing her opponent step to the plate it seemed apparent that 16 wasn’t a sure thing with the powerfully built Black’s turn at the plate looming. In fact, checking several online replay posts of the Little League Softball HR Derby competition, we caught one announcing team joking about Carleigh’s opponent’s size:

“She’s a little thing, there’s nothing to her,” one quipped ironically, drawing their colleague’s response, “Tons of power” as Black stepped to the plate.

And that abundance of physical power landed number 17 over the fence with 13 seconds remaining on her clock, for game, set, and match at 17-16 in a scintillating final round display of dueling power swings. In fact, when one announcer noted that Black had homered on 17 of 24 pitches in that final round, I went back and counted Carleigh’s pitches which totaled 26, not counting one way out of the strike zone she didn’t swing at. So, in her second place performance she hit 16 homers on 26 hit-able pitches.

Carleigh shows that long-ball focus at the plate in South Williamsport. Below, a warm up swing – don’t get too close, you might get launched like 33 of those softballs did during the finals match-up.

Nothing to be ashamed of by any means for our local girl’s run to a second place nationwide against formidable opposition. Carleigh and Lacyn Black had similar runs to their finals match-up. Both won first round, 90-second confrontations 3-2, batting second and passing their competition quickly, Carleigh over Grace Boekenoogen in about 19 seconds, and Lacyn over Gianna Vigil. Carleigh took her semifinal match 10-7 over Nadia Cedillo with competitors still at the plate for 90 second slots or till a winning home run was hit by the second batter. Lacyn won her semi 9-8 with a late rush against Creque Brille. On the boy’s side in the Baseball Division HR Derby, Jayson Veit defeated Drake Molinar 17-14.

Congratulations to all the competitors, with a special nod to our hometown girl – a winner at second place along with all the girls competing “to be the best they can be” with confidence and resilience.

(Writer’s Note: That “be the best you can be” reference is made by this old sportswriter with a nod to former Warren County High School softball coach Bob Mason, who long stressed the idea that success is measured internally, even more so than from on-the-field accomplishments. And that from a coach who brought home two state championships, among district and regional titles along the way. But as he would tell you, some of his less talented teams he considered among his most successful, in that they achieved beyond what one might have expected from a raw talent perspective at a season’s outset. And it would seem Mason’s “Spirit of Wildcat Softball” legacy of that bygone era lives on today in Carleigh Baugher, a winner at second place if we ever saw one.)

Front Royal slugger Carleigh Baugher headed to National Little League Home Run Derby