Hayden girl shines in Big Apple
<p>Haley Loffer competes in the pitiching portion in the national finals of the Major League Baseball Pitch, Hit and Run competiton Monday at Citi Field in New York.</p>
<p>Haley Loffer holds her runner uo trophy from the girls 11-12 age division at the national finals of the Major League Baseball Pitch, Hit & Run competition. She and the other competitors were honored at the Jacob Javits Convention Center in New York on Tuesday.</p>
By MARK NELKE
Sports editor
Haley Loffer stepped onto the major league baseball diamond in the nation's largest city, took notice of all the cameras around her, and concentrated on the task at hand.
"I felt like I did pretty good," said Loffer, 12, after returning from the Major League Baseball Pitch, Hit & Run national finals at Citi Field in New York, home of the Mets.
Loffer, of Hayden, finished second in the girls 11-12 age division in the competition, held Monday prior to the MLB's home run derby. Three made it to the national finals in each division; roughly 600,000 boys and girls age 7-14 competed nationwide for a chance to make it to the national finals.
"It was really cool; it kind of made me a little nervous with all those cameras in my face," Loffer said.
It was the third straight year Loffer won her age group at the Seattle Mariners team competition; however, this year was the first year her scores were good enough to earn her a trip to the national finals.
In the pitching competition, she hit the target 4 of 6 times from 35 feet away. Her hitting didn't go as well as she would have liked - 130 feet, compared to 200 feet in Seattle. In the running, she made it from second base to home in 7.61 seconds.
"I think she handled it pretty well," said her dad, Jeremy. "She's pretty calm; she knew what she had to do."
For being in the national finals, she got to shag balls during the home run derby, and wound up with a little face time on ESPN's telecast as she pursued fly balls that didn't make it out of the park.
Haley and Jeremy arrived in New York on Sunday night and returned home Wednesday, all expenses picked up by MLB and Scotts, the official sponsor. While there, they visited the All-Star game FanFest, where she collected autographs from former Mets and Yankees Darryl Strawberry and Dwight Gooden. She also got autographs from a few of the participants in the home run derby.
Haley and Jeremy received tickets to the All-Star game Tuesday night, and she said it was a particular thrill to watch Mariano Rivera, the great Yankees closer, enter the game in the eighth inning to pitch in his final All-Star game.
This weekend, she's back to softball, joining her Northwest Wildfire 14-and-under team at a tournament in Reno. This fall, she'll be an eighth-grader at Canfield Middle School.
Next year, Loffer moves up to the 13-14 age division, looking to make it four Mariner team titles in a row - and perhaps another trip to the All-Star game, this time in Minneapolis, home of the Minnesota Twins.