SAN DIEGO -- Catcher Chance Sisco grew up in Corona, Calif., just 100 miles north of Petco Park. Because of the proximity, he had at least 50 family members and friends in attendance on Sunday to see him start behind the plate for the U.S. Team in the SiriusXM All-Star Futures Game.
"I'm very excited to be here. My hometown is only an hour north of here," Cisco said after the U.S. lost to the World Team, 11-3. "I was excited to play in front of a bunch of family and friends."
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The Sisco group was rewarded when their favorite son -- and the No. 3 prospect in the Orioles system according to MLBPipeline.com -- homered with one out in the fourth inning off World reliever Francisco Rios from the Blue Jays organization.
"I just got a fastball up in the zone and tried to put the barrel on it," Sisco said about his long drive to left-center on a full count, which at the time gave the U.S. a three-run lead. "I didn't think it was going out. Maybe it would be a double. But when I saw it go over the wall, it was awesome."
Sisco is batting .307 this year with a .397 on-base percentage and .795 OPS for Double-A Bowie in the Eastern League. Those numbers gave him the opportunity to go from here to the Eastern League All-Star Game in Akron, Ohio, on Wednesday.
Cisco flied out to center in his first at-bat to end the second inning and then teed off in the fourth against the right-handed Rios. He was replaced defensively in the top of the sixth.
Sisco has hit only one home run this season and 13 in his 1,282 plate appearances over the course of four Minor League seasons, so power is not his most important product.
"I mean, I'm not really a power hitter," he said with a chuckle. "I usually hit gap to gap. A lot of doubles [18 so far this season]. That's what I've done my whole career. The home runs will come at some point, I think. I don't try to hit home runs. I just let them happen."
Sisco was a second-round pick by the Orioles in the 2013 Draft out of Corona's Santiago High School and is just trying to make a mark in an Orioles organization that's replete with catchers from the top down. Matt Wieters and Caleb Joseph are ensconced at the big league level.

But Sisco said he can't worry about all that.
"My season has been going good. We're just trying to get some wins," he said. "I've been playing well, just trying to stay healthy and stay consistent."