Morehead State slugger takes aim at Jody Hamilton’s 44-year-old home run record of 49

Jody Hamilton and Cary Page, who shared Morehead State’s career home run record of 49, have some company at the top of that list.

Ryley Preece, a senior slugger from Paintsville, tied the two former MSU sluggers with a blast against Ohio University on Tuesday in a 20-10 slugfest victory for the Eagles.

A few days before, Hamilton and Page were on the same baseball field as Owensboro Catholic scrimmaged South Warren. Hamilton is coach of Owensboro Catholic and Page is helping at South Warren where he has a son who is a sophomore.

“I hadn’t seen him in more than 20 years,” Hamilton said. “He hollered at me and told me our record was about to be broken. It’s funny how things happen.”

Hamilton said before last Thursday, he hadn’t seen Page in more than 20 years, but they happened to be together as Preece was about to tie them and likely surpass them with most of the college season ahead of him. Preece, who played baseball and football (QB) at Johnson Central, has nine home runs this season to rank fifth nationally. He hit 20 bombs as a junior.

Hamilton’s career at MSU was from 1977 to 1980. Page (2000 to 2003) tied his record 22 years later and 22 more years later it was tied again by Preece … for now. All three are left-handed sluggers who have taken advantage of the unusual dimensions at Sonny Allen Field.

But there was nothing cheap about anybody’s home runs. Hamilton hit some prodigious home runs that would have been out of any park and the same could be said for Page and Preece. Hamilton, who graduated from Ashland in 1976, said if the record had to be broken, he was glad it was from a fellow eastern Kentuckian.

When, or if, Preece hits No. 50, he would be only the ninth player in Ohio Valley Conference history to accomplish the feat.

For what it’s worth, Hamilton’s 49 home runs came in less at bats than Page or Preece.

Hamilton was a two-time All-OVC First-Team selection and was named the OVC Player of the Year in 1979 when he won the league’s Triple Crown. Hamilton set numerous MSU career records, including batting average (.385), runs scored (139), home runs (49), total bases (376) and runs batted in (155).

He also set MSU’s season records for home runs (19 in1979), total bases (130 in 1979) and runs batted in (60 in 1979) in the Triple Crown season. Hamilton is in the Morehead State University Athletic Hall of Fame.

Hamilton played two years in the New York Yankees organization before embarking on one of the best high school coaching careers in Kentucky history. In his 39^th year of high school coaching, he has a record of 986-390 (71.6 percent) with stints at Raceland, Boyd County, West Jessamine and Owensboro Catholic. That win total ranks fifth all-time.

Hamilton could join the 1,000-win club this season and has won state championships at Boyd County (2001) and West Jessamine (2015). He was named the National High School Athletic Coaches Association’s Coach of the Year in 2016.

Hamilton was among the inaugural selections into the Ashland Baseball CP-1 Hall of Fame in 2015.