Cal Baseball’s Quentin Selma participated in College Home Run Derby

QUICK RECAP:

If only he was able to keep a couple long ball fair, Quentin Selma might have advanced to the 2nd round. Instead, with 8 homers in 4 minutes, Selma was eliminated after the first round of hitting. Selma was edged for the last spot by Kentucky’s Collett who had an extra homer; Collett actually went before Selma, so Quentin could have passed him by hitting the moneyball (count for 2 points) out.

Nonetheless, it was great to see Cal Baseball represented in this showcase where players had to dig into eBay or other places to find the old pre-2011 bats.

The College Baseball season may have officially ended on Wednesday with the Vanderbilt Commodores winning their 2nd NCAA national championship, but we have got a Cal Bear in a national college baseball showcase this Saturday night from Omaha, Nebraska.

Rising junior 3rd baseman Quentin Selma will be the first Cal Baseball Golden Bear ever to compete in the College Baseball Home Run Derby from TD Ameritrade Park, the site of the annual College World Series. Selma will have his family friend Darin Ghimenti, who also coaches alongside Quentin’s father at Fresno City College, as his pitcher.

In case you are wondering if Selma’s timing will be off, he, like most of the current Cal Baseball players, has been playing in summer leagues. Selma has been playing with the Santa Barbara Foresters of the California Collegiate League where he coincidentally has yet to homer (saving those long balls for this Saturday, I hope).

Competing against Selma in the 3 rounds of the home run derby will be Kentucky’s T.J. Collett, Northern Kentucky’s Griffin Doersching, Ole Miss’ Tyler Keenan, Wake Forest’s Chris Lanzilli and Duke’s Michael Rothenberg.

Selma had a big weekend hitting 3 homers against Stanford. He was interviewed by the Pac-12 Network after Cal’s historically most lopsided 18-2 win over their rivals.

With both Andrew Vaughn and Korey Lee going to pro ball after being drafted, Selma, who was a draft eligible sophomore, will be counted on to provide some power for the Cal Bears in 2020. Of course, he probably won’t see as many fastballs without Vaughn’s protection.

Until then, let’s hope for a great showing from the Cal infielder on the national stage.

The Rocket Mortgage College Home Run Derby will be broadcasted live on ESPN2 on Saturday, June 29th, at 5 pm PT.

GO QUENTIN AND GO BEARS!