CENTER TWP — A baseball rests on top of a DVD player in Josh Hepler’s bedroom.

One side of the ball is bruised from where the 10-year-old West Sunbury resident hit it.

The other features an inscription he wrote on the other side of the ball later.

Moose Hep Field 7-6-14. It signifies the date and place where Josh hit his first home run.

That hit resonated much deeper with his family. Josh was playing his first game at the recently rededicated Moose Hepler Field in Center Township.

The field was named after Josh’s great uncle, Donald “Moose” Hepler, who died in 2006 after suffering a heart attack while watching his son Mike play baseball.

Moose’s wife, Shelley, said the Center Township Baseball Association decided this year to rededicate the field in honor of his memory.

“He was very much in love with baseball,” Shelley said. “But not as much as his kids.”

All five of their children — Mike, Randy, Cheyenne, Lee and Dalton — played baseball or softball.

They had put up a sign behind home plate but removed it after somebody vandalized it.

A new red and white sign now hangs beneath the scoreboard, adorning it as “Moose Hepler Field.”

At a ceremony last month, Mike, now 19, threw out the first pitch.

“I was very honored,” Shelley said. “Moose put a lot of time into coaching, assistant coaching and he put a lot of those fields.”

Josh Hepler thought his big hit was going to bounce first.

Instead, the fastball Josh connected with bounced just beyond the fence 185 feet away in left field.

There was no containing Josh’s excitement.

“I had a huge smile on my face and I raised my hands up and pumped them,” Josh said. “I shouted ‘Woo!’”

Josh’s dad, Dave “Dutch” Hepler, made sure to track down the ball.

“It was awesome,” Dutch said. “As soon as he hit it, I started screaming ‘Go ball, go.’”

After the game, Josh’s mom, Ann Marie, wrote a blog post to share with family members and friends.

When Ann Marie shared it with Josh, he didn’t make it the whole way through the first time.

“I had tears in my eyes,” Josh said.

While Josh is too young to remember his uncle, the story still had a big impact.

“When he read my story, he started crying,” Ann Marie said. “He knows it was a loss in his life and they shared the same love of baseball.”

Shelley wasn’t able to make it to the field dedication or the tournament Josh played in.

She was pleased with hearing the news.

“The first thing out of my mouth was angels in the outfield,” Shelley said.