WAYNE COUNTY, Utah — A Utah 7th grader made an impressive debut in his first baseball game this week. 13-year-old Trae Butler’s coach, Coach Daley, told FOX 13 News that Trae’s journey began this past winter when he joined their team for practice sessions in the gym, showing a blend of enthusiasm and a genuine eagerness to learn.
During his first game on Monday night, the middle schooler was faced with a fastball and hit a home run that landed beyond the high school fence (an impressive distance of 320 feet).
“I hit the ball and I was just running to first base," Trae recalled. "I looked at it, I didn't think went over, but I just kept looking and then all of a sudden people kept getting louder and louder and then coming out to the field.”
That’s when they realized it was a home run.
“Everybody's head in the whole park turned and looked up — it was a moonshot," Coach Daley described. "I mean, it was 200 feet in the air. We are playing middle school baseball, so those outfielders are in quite a ways. He hit it 150 feet over the outfielder's head and he was running so fast. You can hear in the video that they're yelling, 'Run! Run!' because I don't think anybody realized that he just hit it out of the park.”
Before the game, Trae said he was “super nervous” and his first at-bats weren’t going that well, so his coach pulled him aside for a pep talk.
“My coach told me the baseball player Barry Bonds said that if you can just catch the ball with the glove, you can do the same with your bat. And then I went out there and I did that," he said.
Coach Daley added: “This is one of the reasons I love baseball is things like that can happen, and it's great to just see. Trae has to work a little extra hard to get to practice, being from Hanksville. It's a commitment to be here. I know that it's going to plant a seed for him and it'll be a lifelong memory.”
Trae lives more than an hour away from school and practice. He has to travel from Hanksville through Capitol Reef National Park and over to Bicknell, which is at least two hours of driving each day. During practice or game days, he has to make arrangements to stay with friends or volunteers mid-week. His mom told FOX 13 News that she is grateful for the people of Wayne County since the community rallies together to make it all happen.
Coach Daley ended with: “I think we got a nickname going for him, ‘Moonshot,’ because that's what he hit. We might shorten it to something, but I think the whole community is going to be calling him ‘Moonshot’ from here on out.”
