FORT MYERS, Fla. (March 25, 2014) – Fifteen-year-old Austin Hayman and 17-year-old Brandi Haas, both of Fort Myers, were the winners of Rib City’s honorary bat boy/bat girl contest.

For the second consecutive year, Rib City was the official bat boy/girl sponsor of the Boston Red Sox Spring Training games for the 2014 season.

As part of the sponsorship, the Fort Myers-headquartered barbecue chain held an in-house drawing to select two bat boys/girls from those who registered at any Lee or Collier County Rib City location.

Hayman served as the honorary batboy at the Sunday, March 23 Spring Training home game of the Red Sox and also received four free game tickets. Haas will serve as the honorary bat girl at this Saturday’s last Red Sox Spring Training game and will also receive four free game tickets.

The contest was open to anyone ages 10 to 17.

Semifinalist winners were drawn from each of Rib City’s 10 Lee and Collier County locations and the on-site vendor site at JetBlue Park at Fenway South on March 15, 2014.

Each of the semi-finalists won a $50 gift certificate to Rib City and include:

  • Ashley Carter, 11, Cape Coral
  • Christopher Corley, 12, Immokalee
  • Kaitlyn Gordon, 13, North Fort Myers
  • Kaleb Harriott, 12, Fort Myers
  • Kyle Hess, 13, Cape Coral
  • Grace Reese, 10, Fort Myers
  • Ryan Rose, 13, Naples
  • Marc Salinas II, 11, North Fort Myers
  • Jace Shuttleworth, 10, Fort Myers
  • Mikey Tweedy, 10, Lehigh Acres

Rib City has 10 Lee and Collier County stores located in Cape Coral, Fort Myers, North Fort Myers, East Fort Myers, Lehigh Acres and Naples. Entries were also accepted during all Red Sox Spring Training home games at Rib City’s vendor site at JetBlue Park at Fenway South.

For the third consecutive year, Rib City served as an official concession vendor at JetBlue Park under Aramark, the Red Sox food and beverage partner and concessionaire. Rib City sold its award-winning baby back ribs, pulled pork sandwiches and sides along Fenway South Drive – a street festival reminiscent of Yawkey Way in Boston. The company also supplied a la carte items to the private suites and picnics.

“Once again, we were very excited to bring our quality barbecue products to all of the Red Sox Spring Training fans this season and additionally serve as the official bat boy/bat girl sponsor again this year,” said Craig Peden, president of Rib City.

Founded in Fort Myers in 1989, Rib City is a family-owned national barbecue chain that currently has 12 corporate restaurants in Florida and 16 franchise restaurants across the country including Washington, Utah, Colorado, Tennessee, Ohio, Illinois, Missouri and Virginia­.

Rib City offers a menu of barbecued meats, specialized sauces and complementary side dishes such as made-from-scratch baked beans and coleslaw. Rib City achieves authentic backyard barbecue flavor by slowly cooking baby back ribs and chicken over selected hardwoods – including Red Oak – carefully balancing heat and cooking time to seal in the distinctive Rib City BBQ taste. Meats can be topped with one of four secret recipe sauces: brown sugar-based sweet sauce, vinegar-based tangy sauce, Carolina mustard sauce or hot sauce. Additional menu items include fried okra, three-cheese fries, fried shrimp, coconut cream and Southern pecan pies and more.

Rib City’s complete menu is available online at www.ribcity.com.

Rib City is listed with the Franchise Registry, a list of franchise systems whose franchisees have the benefits of a streamlined review process for U.S. Small Business Administration financings.