CENTER TWP — His favorite major league player is Boston Red Sox hurler Josh Beckett and Josh Bartley hopes to one day be a professional pitcher himself.

But he's not a bad hitter, either.

Bartley, 12, of Mars, won the fourth annual Butler County Home Run Derby Monday evening at the Center Township youth baseball complex, drilling 15 homers in the final round alone.

His 34 total home runs more than doubled his closest competitor, Caleb Thorn of Saxonburg. Thorn hit 16.

"This kid just dominated,"Home Run Derby director Jay Fennell said. "We've never had anyone do that before."

Bartley's home run total fell short of the event record 50 hit by Butler Township's Bobby Swartwout in 2005, but Cody Wheeler hit 40 in that same derby.

The Butler County Home Run Derby consists of the top Little League-age power hitters in the county. The 19 entrants Monday combined to hit 177 home runs in games this season.

"I was really nervous at the start of this," Bartley said. "I didn't think I'd get out of the first round."

Bartley hit 27 home runs during the season and hammered 13 in the first round of the derby. He was the last player to take his swings during the opening round.

Richard VanDruff of Freeport had hit nine homers and Thorn seven before him.

"I liked going last,"Bartley said. "It gave me a chance to see what I was up against."

Thorn hit six homers during the second round to pull even with Bartley before the latter stepped up to the plate again.

Any swing not resulting in a home run was an out. Each hitter was given 10 outs per round.

Through nine outs of the second round, Bartley had hit just one home run. He then hit five straight balls out of the park before ending the round.

"That's what did it for him,"Thorn said of the late second-round surge. "After that, I knew I didn't have much of a chance to catch him."

Thorn — who hit 19 home runs during the season — and Bartley were teammates on the Allegheny Heat traveling team this summer.

"Josh got on a roll. I was egging him on,"Thorn said.

The 5-foot-7, 135-pound Bartley was in a home run derby once before, as a 10-year-old at Pine-Richland. He won that one as well.

"Iwasn't even supposed to be in it,"he said, smiling. "I showed up and they let me do it. I never started hitting a lot of home runs until last year."

Monday's home run derby victory capped a memorable season for Bartley. His Mars youth team only lost four games all season and he played for a Mars all-star team that won a pair of tournaments.

Bartley also played for the Beaver Valley Red team that won a 98-team tournament in Cooperstown, N.Y. That team went 10-0 in the tourney and won the championship game, 2-1.

Alec Geibel of Center Township hit 11 home runs during Monday's competition and VanDruff hit 10. Cory Wheeler — Cody's younger brother — hit eight.

Other competitors were D.J. Perez of Butler, Garett Goslaw of Summit Township, Jake Laskey and Justin Kappeler of Seneca Valley, Tanner Gilliland of East Butler, Adam Schaffner and Ryan Denny of Butler Township, Max Bachman, Evan Barber, Jake Stoner, Ryan Hannon, Ryan Vero, Kyle Campbell and Joseph DiMartino of Center Township.