MWL1 Great Lakes Loons

Jason Hockemeyer Advances in Hometown Hitter

May 19, 2008 - Midwest League (MWL1)
Great Lakes Loons News Release


Following Monday night's Loons-Wizards contest, the first preliminary round of the Hometown Hitter competition, powered by Dow Corning, took center stage. Five local high school students participated in the contest, and left-handed hitting Jason Hockemeyer of Meridian High School stole the show blasting a long fly ball high off the wall in the right-center field gap and followed with a towering home run down the right field line.

The top three finishers are listed below:

- First Place: Jason Hockemeyer (Sanford Meridian HS) - 7 Points

- Second Place: Mike Schaaf (Arthur Hill HS) - 5 Points

- Third Place: Jarrod LaBelle (John Glenn HS) - 1 Point

Hockemeyer, a junior in high school, advances to the championship round of the Hometown Hitter competition. Three more preliminary rounds will take place - June 2, 3 and 4. The top finishers in those competitions plus the top second-place finisher between the four preliminary rounds will advance to the championship round to face Hockemeyer. The winner of the championship event on June 13 will be the ninth entry into the Midwest League Home Run Derby, powered by Dow Corning.

The Hometown Hitter is a high school home run derby-style event open to one high school student-athlete per local high school.

In the ballgame, Wynn Pelzer led the Fort Wayne Wizards to a 3-2 win over the Great Lakes Loons in front of 2,235 fans at Dow Diamond.

The Loons scored first in the opening inning when Alfredo Silverio's sacrifice fly sent home the game's first run.

The Wizards countered with two runs in the third on Shane Buschini's two-run double and tacked on another run when Justin Fuller's fielding error sent home the game's deciding run, making it 3-1.

Andrew Lambo laced a broken-bat RBI single in the ninth to bring the Loons within a run, but it was too little too late as Wizards' closer Jackson Quesada struck out Jaime Ortiz to end the ballgame.

Daigoro Rondon (2-5) allowed three runs (two earned) in 4 2/3 innings of work in picking up his fifth loss of the season.

The Loons fall to 21-22, but are still just one and a half games out of first place. The Wizards improve to 20-24 and are three games back.

The Loons host the Fort Wayne Wizards for game two a four-game series from Dow Diamond Tuesday morning. Justin Miller is scheduled to start for Great Lakes. It's a field trip day to Dow Diamond for school kids. Put away those pens and papers as Holiday Inn presents School Kid's Day for a special early 10:35am game. Tickets are still available; you can get yours by logging onto Loons.com or by calling 939-837-BALL.

Also, a limited number of tickets still remain for the Tommy Lasorda luncheon at Dow Diamond, this Wednesday. Tickets to the event are $50 and benefit the non-profit Michigan Baseball Foundation. Tommy will chat about baseball and tell some of his legendary stories beginning at 11:30am Wednesday in the suite level of Dow Diamond. Operators are available to take orders Tuesday from 9am-5pm by calling 989-837-BALL.

The Great Lakes Loons are the second-year Single-A affiliate of the Los Angeles Dodgers and members of the Midwest League. For more information about the Loons, visit Loons.com or call 989-837-BALL.

Check out the Great Lakes Loons Statistics



Midwest League Stories from May 19, 2008


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