Chase Torres slugged a three-run, inside-the-park home run for the Morris County Dragons.
By Rich Bevensee
Andrew Bode could have been consumed with first game jitters, playing at Diamond Nation, pitching in cold weather or any combination of those factors.
What the young right-hander did bring to his first outing of the 2026 baseball season was a single-minded mentality to stay in “attack mode.” That approach was clearly important to him because he mentioned it repeatedly in a brief postgame conversation.
Bode left nothing to chance in his season debut, allowing one run on one hit in four crisp innings while leading his Morris County Dragons 14U club to a 9-1, five-inning decision over the Jersey Shore-based Sugar Kings on Saturday in a Spring Invitational pool play contest at the Nation in Flemington.
“First time out, I was trying to throw strikes and have the mindset of attack mode,” Bode said. “Don’t be scared just because it’s different going from indoors to outdoors with live hitters. At Diamond Nation in this cold weather, you gotta have the mentality of attack mode.”
The Dragons (2-0) later defeated Wow Factor Northeast 14U National, 13-10, and earned a berth in the 14U Gold semifinals against Flores Baseball Braves 2030s (2-0) on Sunday. The winner will then face FB Braves Red (2-0).
The hitting stars for the Dragons were Chase Torres, who clubbed a three-run, inside-the-park home run in the fourth inning, and Vin Morse, who hit a two-run triple in the fifth.
It was Torres’ second career homer and his first since going yard last summer.
“I was thinking run as fast as I can,” Torres said about his two-out blast into right-center field as he rounded first base. “I know it’s a gap and it’s a pretty big field and you don’t know how fast the outfielders are, so you gotta run as hard as you can and play it out. I was thinking three and saw coach waving me around. I knew I’d make it home because I saw my friends behind home plate yelling, “you’re up, you’re up.”
Chase Torres, left, and Andrew Bode propelled the MC Dragons to a season opening victory.
Bode kept it simple for the opener, throwing 75 percent fastballs while mixing in curveballs for his highly economical 37-pitch outing. He allowed two walks and struck out two.
“It was cold but I just tried to throw strikes as much as I could,” Bode said. “Once I got rolling I didn’t think about it too much.”
“Pitching was fabulous today,” Dragons coach George Dionyssiou said. “First inning, he walked the first guy, a little rusty, but he fought back and enjoyed a solid game. Can’t ask for anything more. We went into this tournament with a max count of 50 pitches for our players, to get all the kids into the game and keep them healthy.”
The Dragons and Sugar Kings traded runs for two innings, with the Dragons taking a 2-1 lead into the top of the fourth inning. That’s when, with two out, Torres ripped a two-out shot into right center which chased home Liano Bisceglia and Zach Dionyssiou. With Torres’ speed there was never a doubt he’d reach home safely and make it a 5-1 game.
In the fifth, Morse sent his two-run triple into the same gap and he later scored on a wild pitch. Marley Norin singled and also scored on a wild pitch for the final score, then came on in relief of Bode and struck out the side to end the game.
“The boys came out great, first game of the season after a long offseason indoors,” Dionyssiou said. “Looking forward to watching them improve and being able to show all the hard work they did this winter.”