Niceville's Hinds wins HR derby

SETH STRINGER|8 hours ago
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Rece Hines, center, removes his helmet after belting a home run during Niceville's 3-2 district tournament win over Navarre in Milton. [MICHAEL SNYDER/DAILY NEWS]
PENSACOLA - Rece Hinds has never considered himself to be a home-run hitter.

Forget his 11 round-trippers as a sophomore at Niceville. Forget the projectability that landed him a scholarship to LSU.

The 6-foot-3, 195-pound shortstop said his raw power has yet to truly develop.

"One day it will come," he said.

Try telling that to Monday's High School Home Run Derby crowd at Pensacola's Blue Wahoos Stadium, the host of the Southern League All-Star game.

Try telling that to his competitors: South Walton's Austin Garofalo, Tate High's Logan Blackmon and Catholic High's Donovan Benoit.

The quartet entered with a congregate 38 homers from 2017 - Garofalo with 15, Hinds with 11, Benoit with seven and Blackmon with five.

Only Hinds cleared the Double-A park's fences, launching two long balls to left field during his three-minute round.

"It was awesome. It was crazy," Hinds said. "I'd never been in something like that before. The kids were out catching balls and the crowd was great."

And the dimensions "were huge."

"Like 345 to left field and center was 408," Hinds said.

Hinds tasked his step-dad with throwing BP, but not before making clear two requests: Keep it inside and up.

"He did a good job the first minute and a half and I hit one," Hinds said. "Then he started throwing away and I used my one timeout. I was exhausted. There was like a minute and 45 seconds left. I talked to him and he brought it back inside."

The top two home run derby contestants were supposed to advance to a final showdown, but with no competition Hinds was declared the winner after the opening round. Making the win even sweeter was the man who handed out the trophy: Two-time Masters champion Bubba Watson.

Asked if he's a fan of the MLB All-Star Home Run Derby, Hinds said "it can get a bit boring."

"But with the timed rounds now it's a lot better," he said.

The win was just the latest honor following a sensational sophomore campaign for the LSU commitment, who hit .318 with 24 runs, 24 RBI, 11 homers, five stolen bases and a team-best 1.218 OPS to help lead the Eagles to a 19-11 record and region quarterfinal appearance this past season.

Hinds will take that momentum into summer ball with his Five Star National travel ball club based out of Georgia. He'll also head to North Carolina on Sunday in the first tryout for the Team USA class of 2018 squad. It's a process that whittles down the best 80 2018 prospects (Hinds, a 2019 product, is playing up) to 40 and then 20.

"It should be a lot of fun," Hinds said. "Hopefully I do well."

Don't put it past the home run derby champ.