We went to watch my son Blake play baseball in Hastings, Nebraska this past weekend. He plays collegiate ball for the Hastings Broncos. We ended up witnessing an unusual feat at the ball park.
Duncan Field was built in 1941 and for a time in the 50's hosted a minor league team. It has hosted thousands of American Legion games including the American Legion World Series. I could go on, but the point is there has been a lot of high level baseball played at Duncan Field.
I know this isn't a great picture, but check out the link above to see some great pics. The ball field is 370 ft. deep in the corners, 405 in the power alleys and 408 in dead center. It's very big.
Prior to the metal baseball bat era (about 1970), there were only 19 home runs ever hit at Duncan field! Wow, sounds impossible. So, that is 19 home runs in about 30 years.
Since metal bats came around, a few more home runs have been hit. In fact, the unusual feat we saw was a home run hit by my son Blake. After he hit a 3 run towering home run on Sunday, he was told that he was the 120 man to hit a home run in the history of Duncan Field. Is that cool or what? That is an average of less than two guys hitting a home run each year in the history of the field.
Below is the article I cut and pasted out of the Hastings College website.
BRONCOS SPLIT WITH VITERBO UNIVERSITY
March 15---The Hastings College baseball team split their doubleheader with Viterbo University Sunday afternoon in Hastings, Neb. to complete their four game series with the V-Hawks. Viterbo took game one 8-0 and the Broncos were victorious in game two, 4-2. In game one, David Bates was the starting pitcher for Hastings as he went 5 innings, allowing five runs off six hits while striking out five batters. Hastings was held to two hits courtesy of Josh Mondragon and Blake Marquardt. In game two, A.J. Clark was the winning pitcher for the Broncos as he went seven complete innings, allowing just two runs off seven hits. He also struck out five batters. The Broncos had six hits in the game, none bigger than Blake Marquardt's three-run homerun in the bottom of the 4th inning to give Hastings a 4-1 advantage. The Broncos would hold on for the 4-2 win. Hastings is now 7-14 on the season and will be back in action on Monday, March 16 as they travel to Shawnee, Okla. to take on Oklahoma Baptist. The doubleheader will start at 1 p.m.
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