Kayden Porter steals the spotlight at AAA Home Run Derby

SALT LAKE CITY — If chicks do indeed dig the long ball, as the classic '90s Nike commercial — yep, the one featuring Atlanta's Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine — so wonderfully states, then Spring Mobile Ballpark was the place to be on Monday night.

Besides the real fireworks, which lit up the sky around 9:45 p.m., the seven participants in the 2011 Home Run Derby put on a show of their own, launching home runs to every part of the field for two solid hours.

And interspersed among the Triple-A sluggers, which included Salt Lake's own Jeff Baisley, two of Utah's finest high school players were on full display. Bonneville's Sam Hall and Spanish Fork's Kayden Porter had each qualified for a spot in the derby after finishing 1-2 in a recent high school home run contest.

Hall struggled, failing to connect on a home run until he had nine of his 10 allotted outs in the first round.

And Porter?

He stole the show.

The 6-foot-5, 250-pound senior-to-be from Spanish Fork High led off the derby with four home runs in the first round. His fourth homer was a moon shot that flew over the 474-foot sign on the snack shack that sits on the concourse beyond the left-field wall. Word is, the ball is still rolling down Main Street somewhere between 1300 South and Harrison Avenue.

The four home runs were enough to propel Porter into the second round.

"I was really nervous because I didn't really know what to expect," Porter said. "Coming out with four home runs, I didn't know if that would get it done with these Triple-A guys. But I'm glad I got the chance to get in."

As it turns out, Porter was just warming up. He smacked nine homers in the second round to reach the final pairing, where he would face Stefan Gartrell of the Gwinnett Braves. With two outs to go in round two, Iowa's Bryan LaHair, who leads the PCL with 24 home runs, ran out and replaced the high-schooler's metal bat with a traditional wooden bat, much to the delight of the crowd.

Porter smoked a line drive that fell a few feet shy of the warning track on the first pitch, then hit a grounder for his tenth and final out.

"I play in wood bat leagues during the summer and fall, so I'm used to hitting with them," Porter said. "I was hoping that one of the guys would throw me a wood bat again [in the final round] because I didn't bring my own wood bats with me. That didn't happen, though, so maybe next time."