By JOHN BOHNENKAMP
It wasn’t really a surprise that Mason Schwalbach won the home run derby during the Burlington Bees’ Community Basket Day at Community Field.
The surprise was who finished second.
Schwalbach edged pitcher Matthew Dinae 2-1 in the championship round, capping the two-hour event that improvised after Sunday’s regularly-scheduled Prospect League game was canceled.
Schwalbach is second on the Bees with seven home runs this season, and leads them with a .581 slugging percentage.
He got two in the first round to defeat Cedric Dunnwald, then advanced to the championship round on a tiebreaker.
But Dinae, a 6-foot-5, 270-pound left-hander from the University of New Mexico, challenged Schwalbach.
“I was getting a little nervous there at the end,” Schwalbach said. “He was putting some good swings on the ball.”
Dinae had two home runs to beat Keanu Spenser, the team leader in home runs, in the first round, then had two home runs against Corey Boyette in the semifinals.
He couldn’t get a second one to tie Schwalbach, though.
“Just tried to stay back, and get it into the air,” said Dinae, who was a two-way player at La Cueva High School in Hawaii.
“They wanted to throw a pitcher in there, is what I was told,” Bees manager Owen Oreskovich said. “We knew he had been a two-way player.
“He was in the (batting) cages earlier, when I got there this morning. He’s got a great swing. And he’s a big dude, too.”
Dinae wasn’t going to pass up the chance.
“Coach told me, ‘You’re in the home run derby,’ and I was like, ‘OK, cool,’” Dinae said. “ I just tried to do my best, tried to win.”
The home run derby, along with a five-inning intrasquad game before, was part of an event created after Sunday’s game against the Thrillville Thrillbillies was canceled so members of that team could attend the funeral of teammate Ashton Smith, who died Monday.
Community Basket Day, a charity fundraiser that awards a total $10,000 in cash and a basket full of prizes to four winners, is one of the largest events on the Bees’ schedule, so changes were made so fans come to the ballpark for the drawing of the winning tickets.
“I thought it was a great experience, fun for these guys,” said Oreskovich, who had the game-winning sacrifice fly in the intrasquad game. “It was a great, relaxed day for them. We’ve got some good guys on this team. Nobody complained against doing this, like you might get with some teams, some guys, in summer ball, when you’re not playing a game and that’s what they’re here to do. We’ve got an incredible group of guys.”
“It was nice,” Schwalbach said. “Gave us a chance to enjoy ourselves. It wasn’t really an off-day, more of a relaxed (day). Just have fun, make baseball fun again.”
The Bees are two games behind the Quincy Gems for the Great River Division’s second-half playoff spot with six games remaining in the regular season, including Monday’s doubleheader against the Thrillbillies at Community Field. Five of the Bees’ games this week are at home, including Saturday’s regular-season finale against Quincy.
“We’ve got some important games coming up,” Oreskovich said. “Hopefully we can get back to playing good baseball tomorrow, and take it from there.”
Photo: Bees manager Owen Oreskovich (left) celebrates after hitting the game-winning sacrifice fly in Sunday’s intrasquad game at Community Field. (Steve Cirinna/Burlington Bees)
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