Braydon Thorp of All-Out Baseball 15U tripled in this at bat during 15U World Series.

By Joe Hofmann

All Out 15U had just returned home from a five-day, nine-game grind at Perfect Game in Georgia that was so grueling that coach Guy Lynam had some questions about his team.

The chief one being: Would his players have anything left in the tank Monday night?

“I thought we’d be flat,” he said.

Flat?

Um, not exactly.

Lynam’s team was All In and simply overwhelming in a 14-0, three-inning Mercy Rule victory over Sportika in the 15U Diamond Nation World Series.

All Out, out of South Jersey, scored 14 runs on 12 hits and drew six walks in an overpowering display of hitting.

Lynam’s team was coming off an impressive fifth-place finish out of 368 teams in Georgia. The team amassed 80 hits during a nine-game swing throughout the state and had just returned to New Jersey.

That’s a lot of baseball, and Lynam himself had just come home Sunday night. He was spent – and he didn’t get a single at bat.

No wonder he thought the way he did when he arrived at Diamond Nation.

“I literally just got home,” he said. “I didn’t know how we’d do.”

They did just fine, thank you, erupting for four runs in the first against Sportika starter and loser Thomas Dunn. They added two runs in the second and eight more in the third to end the game ahead of schedule.

When Lynam and his team arrived Monday, he said to leadoff hitter Jason Bogart, “This is just another field in Georgia!”

And then they went out and pounded the baseball.

The onslaught began in the bottom of the first when Bogart singled and Mason Myers and Guy Lynam, the coach’s son, walked before Anthony Catalpo walked in one run and Andrew Pron singled in two more.

In the second, Braydon Thorp tripled but was forced out at home on Jude Morgan’s grounder to short.

But Mike Baxter reached on an infield hit and Bogart tripled in two.

In the third, Lynam and Catalpo walked, Brady Jackson doubled in a run, Pron walked to load the bases and Thorp walked to drive in a run. Morgan singled in two, Baxter singled in one, Ty Rodgers singled, Bogart hit a sacrifice fly, Myers singled, and Lynam singled in two.

“I like to think that we have some good hitters,” coach Lynam said. “We train together and we spend a lot of time on hitting, hours on it. And everybody comes to practice. They all get along. We have been playing together for a long time, seven of them have played together since they were nine years old.”

All of the hitting made a winner out of Morgan, pitching for the first time since the fall. He allowed one hit through three innings with four strikeouts and no walks. Morgan set the tone in the top of the first inning when he struck out the side.

“He threw strikes,” Bogart said, “a lot of strikes.”

The team is one of the favorites to win the entire tournament, which is the way it goes with any tournament it enters.

“We love coming to this facility,” coach Lynam said. “Diamond Nation goes out of its way to help the kids. There are so many D-1 commits and pro players who have come out of here. It all starts with the Custs and what they have done. We are thrilled to be here.”

And they have come to win this week.

“We try to win everything we possibly can,” Bogart said.

Future 15U World Series opponents, you have been warned.