After spending the spring launching baseballs over the fences at Encinitas’s Ecke Sports Park, 12-year-old outfielder Jett Fisher traveled to Cooperstown, New York, with the 12u Encinitas Tritons carrying one persistent thought: What if?
What if he could reach the finals of the Cooperstown Dreams Park King of Swat home run derby? What if he could compete on the tournament’s Little Majors field? What if he could win?
By week’s end, the Encinitas Little Leaguer had answered all three, outlasting representatives from 104 teams to capture the King of Swat title.
“Probably for the week leading up to this, when he knew he was going to represent his team, at least twice a day, he’d say, ‘Mom, what if I win the King of Swat?’ He was already imagining it. It’s like, in his mind, he was already there,” mom Julianne Fisher told The Coast News.
Jett had spent months watching videos from Cooperstown Dreams Park and envisioning himself competing on one of youth baseball’s biggest stages, his dad, Byron Fisher, added.
The weeklong tournament brought together nearly 1,200 players from 104 teams, with each club selecting one player to compete in the King of Swat home run derby. Fisher’s Encinitas Tritons teammates chose him to represent their team.
“As parents, we try to manage expectations, but Jett has a way of exceeding them time and time again,” Julianne Fisher said.
And once the competition began, Fisher quickly showed why his teammates selected him.
“He was pumped,” Byron Fisher said. “He was so excited to represent his team. His goal was just to compete in the finals in the Little Majors stadium because it’s a big deal to compete on that field. His goal was just to make it to the finals.”
Given five pitches in the opening round, Fisher blasted three home runs to advance as one of only four finalists. He followed with two more home runs in the championship round, forcing a three-way swing-off before delivering two more long balls to secure the King of Swat crown.
“It was the pressure,” Byron Fisher said. “It’s performing in front of thousands and hitting home runs on demand. Hitting three in five pitches is pretty outstanding.”
The performance was no surprise to those who had watched Fisher develop on the baseball fields of Encinitas.
“He’s definitely known as the power hitter,” Julianne Fisher said. “Even in the Little League community in Encinitas, people know his name. He won the home run derby in Little League as well.”
Encinitas Tritons head coach Andy Jones said watching Fisher succeed against such a large field of talented hitters made the accomplishment even more impressive.
“It’s always impressive watching Jett hit, but it was really cool watching him win the home run derby against such a large group of talented hitters,” Jones said.
For the Fisher family, the championship unfolded from two different vantage points. Julianne watched from the stands in Cooperstown, while Byron followed every swing on a livestream as he stayed behind with Jett’s two younger brothers.
“Honestly, it was surreal,” Julianne Fisher said. “We were just happy that he made it to the finals. To even be able to compete there was awesome. Then he just kept going, and our eyes just kept getting wider. Like, ‘Is this real?'”
The moment quickly became something larger than one player’s accomplishment.
“Jett was super stoked,” said Anthony Mazzei, whose son, Tenn, was Fisher’s teammate and shared a bunkroom with him during the week in Cooperstown. “The whole team and parents were thrilled for him. It was a great moment for the whole group, the whole town with all the families spending years together on the fields at Ecke.”
For Julianne Fisher, seeing her son reach that moment was the reward of watching years of work, dedication and passion come together.
“To see your child living his dreams is just a front-row seat to your son living his dreams,” she said. “There’s a joy like no other. I couldn’t believe it, but at the same time, I was just beaming for him.”
The Encinitas Tritons finished the week with a 4-3 record, advancing to the tournament’s single-elimination bracket before falling 11-5 to a top-seeded team from Northern California’s Peninsula.
