St. Mathias Man Returns To Townball 10-Years Later, Hits HR In 1st At Bat

How awesome is it to return to doing something you love? That's exactly what this St. Mathias man did this weekend while playing townball with his son. What's even sweeter is knowing that you still have it, and proving that by hitting a home run in your very first at-bat. Congrats to Derek Owen!

The Victory League posted the video yesterday, with a great caption.

How can you not be romantic about baseball? In Royalton, 43-year old Derek Owen returns from a 10+year retirement to play with his son Eli for St. Mathias. What does he do in his 1st AB? He Homers on a 2-0 pitch! Derek ends up 3-3 with 2 walks and 3 rbi in the Devils 3-2 win!

You read that right, Derek, who returned after taking off a decade, was responsible for all THREE runs scored by St. Mathias.

The Victory League Facebook page is the only other place where I can find more information on the game between Royalton and St. Mathias, and this is the short recap that was offered.

The only info I have on this game is that the Devils beat the Riverdogs 3-2 with the story of the game being the return of 43-year old Derek Owen. Having been retired for over a decade after a long and successful Victory League career, Derek signed up with the Devils this year when his son Eli also signed his contract to play for St. Mathias. Derek said it had always been his dream to play on the same team with his son and on Sunday, that dream came true. In his first at-bat in over a decade, Derek took a couple of pitches out of the strike zone and then on his first swing, he launched a 2-run Homer! And that was just the start of his day as Derek ended up going 3-3 and drove in all 3 runs in the Devils win! Eli Owen got into the act as well with a double of his own.

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Congrats on the win, and welcome back to baseball Derek.