PLYMOUTH – When you think about Niko Brini, the words home run hitter don’t necessarily jump out as your first thought. That won’t stop Brini from testing his skills against the top sluggers in the state next month as part of the A Shot For Life Home Run Derby charity event.
“I’m not really a home run hitter, but I’m always up for a challenge or a competition of any sort. I’m a leadoff hitter and more of a contact hitter, but I’ll have no problem swinging for the fences for that one day,” the Plymouth resident joked. “Hopefully I’ll have more stamina in the early rounds than the bigger hitters and I’ll be able to hit some over the fence.”
The A Shot for Life Home Run Derby will take place Sept. 4 and Sept. 5 at Austin Prep High School featuringsome good competition between the top baseball and softball sluggers in the state for a great cause. All of the competitors are asked to raise a minimum of $1,000 for ongoing cancer research by theDr. Curry Research Lab at Massachusetts General Hospital.
Mike Slonina,theCEO, President, and Founder of A Shot For Life, Inc., wrote in a pressrelease about the event that the players were chosen as part ofa competitive process that includes a scouting phase, an interview phase, and finally the selection phase.
“I think they are looking for good people as much as good hitters” to take part in the event each year, Brini said. “I had a long interview with (Slonina) back in the spring and a few weeks later he got back to me and offered me a chance to be a part of this.”
If it involves baseball, you have Brini’s attention right off the bat. He had some great success early on with teams from the Plymouth Youth Baseball and Softball League and eventually advanced to Boston College High School. He started on the JV squad as a freshman and, after missing his sophom*ore year because of the pandemic, he came back this spring to bat leadoff and start in centerfield on the varsity team that made it to the semifinals of the Division1 South tournament.
“We had a strange year where we lost a lot of games by a run or two. We should have had a better record than what we finally ended up with,” Brini said. “I’m excited to see what we can do in my senior year.”
It’s already been a summer filled with baseball for Brini, who plays with the New England Baseball AAU squad.
“I think I’ve been home for about six days this summer, but I’ve loved every bit of it,” Brini said. “I’ve traveled to Florida a couple of times for tournaments, as well as Alabama, Georgia, New York, Rhode Island, and I’ve been all over Massachusetts playing games.”
Standing at 5-foot-10 and weighing 185 pounds, Brini is built to play baseball. “I can make solid contact with the ball and I love playing baseball, but I think the best parts of my game might be my speed on the bases as well as my defensive ability,” Brini said.
Brini committed to play baseball at the University of Connecticut after his high school freshman season. He said he was playing in an AAU tournament the summer after his freshman year and scouts for UConn were there to look at the opposing pitcher. Brini happened to have a good day at the plate that day with a couple of hits and several stolen bases. That caught the scout’s eye and soon after that Brini was a Division 1 commit with the Huskies.
“It’s a big load off my shoulders to know what’s ahead of me as I start my senior year of high school,” Brini said. “As it turns out, it was great for me to get it done at that time because of what happened last year with the pandemic and how that affected the college scouts and their ability to find players.”
The A Shot for Life Home Run Derby baseball competition will be held at Austin Prep on Saturday, Sept. 4, and the Queen of the home run for softball will be crowned on Sunday, Sept. 5.
Joining Brini in the baseball competition will be Ryan Sonja (Worcester Academy), Matt Brinker (Xavarian), Matt Conte (Dexter-Southfield), Brandyn Durand (Bishop Hendricken), Jack Goodman (Medfield), Justin Gouveia (Bishop Stang), Ryan Grace (Concord-Carlisle), Mark Henshon (Roxbury Latin), Nick Marshall (Reading), Levi McAllister (St. Mark’s), Aidan Noke (Austin Prep), Payton Palladino (St. John’s Prep), Sean Stephenson (Bishop Feehan), Charlie Walker (Milton), Evan Blanco (Austin Prep), and Jake Bollin (Noble and Greenough).
Competing for the softball title will be Kelly Colleran (North Attleboro), Bitsy Crowley (Medfield), Lauren Eby (Attleboro), McKenzie Faherty (Bishop Feehan), Melina Fedele (Austin Prep), Emma Ferrara (Needham), Sadie Fitzgerald (Durfee), Kylie Frank (Phillips Academy), Alyssa Grossi (St. Mary’s), Ryanne Haynes (Bellingham), Reilly Jewett (Norton), Kaelyn Larkin (Medfield), Destiny McGrath (Norton), Brianna Meroli (Austin Prep), Ava Venturelli (Taunton), Cate Viola (Tabor Academy), and Emma Walsh (Boston Latin Academy).
The Boston Red Sox Foundation has donated a reward for the top fundraiser from this event. The highest fundraiser will be gifted with premium game tickets, a VIP tour, batting practice access, and a scoreboard sign during a game.
For more information on the event go to https://www.ashotforlife.org/
Email the reporter at dwolcott@wickedlocal.com and you can follow him on Twitter, @DavidWolcott1.
