Photo by Tim Clinton

Former Seattle Mariners pitcher Casey Sadler takes a hard cut during the Saturday, July 11 Home Run Derby at Cheney Stadium in Tacoma.  Sadler hit a walk off home run in the celebrity softball game that followed.

Photo by Tim Clinton

Men's professional softball player Blake Lively won the Seattle All-Star Classic Home Run Derby, launching 25 in the first round and 22 in the finals.

Sadler home run breaks tie in Classic

By Tim Clinton

Former Seattle pitcher Casey Sadler and women's professional softball player Kylee Studioso wowed the Cheney Stadium crowd early in the Saturday, July 11 Seattle All-Star Classic Home Run Derby when they each connected for 15 round trippers in back-to-back efforts.

But their lead only lasted through three ensuing batters before former Major League Baseball first baseman Matt Fields, former Arizona Cardinals football wide receiver Max Komar and men's professional softball player Blake Lively stepped up and hit 17, 20 and 25 home runs in that order.

Lively went on to hit 22 to the 13 of Komar to win the finals.

But Sadler and Studioso got the last word in for the celebrity softball game that followed, as Sadler blasted a walk off home run in the bottom of the seventh and final inning of an 18-17 win for the We Did Not Care team and Studioso took home the Most Valuable Player award after all was said and done.

She hit two long balls well over the softball fence inside the regular baseball Cheney Stadium fence during the game and also did most of her team's pitching.

"This award is awesome," Studioso said.

Lively hit two home runs as well only for Team Darkside in a loss, including the only blast to clear the baseball fence.  Fields and Komar also played for that team, which was led by Seattle Seahawks football defensive lineman Uchenna Nwosu while the We Did Not Care team was led by Seahawks kick return specialist Rashid Shaheed.

Team Darkside started off the scoring as Devin Shor launched a leadoff home run in the top of the first.

We Did Not Care answered with three runs in the bottom of the inning as Myles Gaskin of University of Washington football running back fame doubled and scored on a double by Shaheed before Sadler crunched a two-run home run.

That team tacked on two more runs in the second as Garry Gilliam hit an infield single ahead of a home run down the line in left by Studioso.

A deep drive by Komar to lead off the Team Darkside third was caught in deep left but ruled a home run because the fielder went over the line between two divided portions of fencing and that made it a 5-2 game.

The scored stayed the same until Team Darkside rallied for 11 runs in the top of the fourth to jump out front, 13-5.

Lively launched his out of the park home run with one on to start the scoring and Shor hit a three-run shot to highlight the scoring binge.  Zaydrius Rainey-Sale, Kwame Appiah and UW linebacker Xe'Ree Alexander all contributed doubles.

We Did Not Care got five of the runs back in the bottom of the fifth to make it a game again at 13-10.

Gaskin hit a leadoff single and Daniel Kriel hit into an error ahead of a two-run double by Shaheed.  Sadler followed with a single and the Seattle Seahawks' Brady Russell homered to center to bring in three more runs.

Team Darkside's Andrew Mercer, a Washington Special Olympic standout, led off the sixth with a home run to left center for a 14-10 lead before the We Did Not Care team tied it with four in the bottom of the inning.

Gilliam doubled ahead of a home run off the baseball wall by Studioso.  Malcolm Dewalt IV later reached base on a fielder's choice and Gerald Smiley homered to tie it up.

Team Darkside went up again at 17-14 in the top of the seventh on three home runs in a row off the bats of Seattle Seawolves rugby legend Eric Duechle, Rainey-Sale and Lively before We Did Not Care scored four in the bottom of the inning with a reshuffled lineup to win it.

Gaskin homered to lead it off and Shaheed hit an infield single ahead of a home run by Smiley, who was moved up a ways in the order.

That knotted the score at 17-17.

A hard ensuing shot by Studioso was snagged at shortstop for an out, but Sadler won it with his blast to the left of center field.

The Super Bowl champion Seahawks were well represented in the game played a little before their practice opens for this fall.

"We're ready for the '26-'27 season," Nwosu told the crowd.