By Sean Reilly
The Out Of The Park Cyclones 14U Prospects returned to Diamond Nation over the weekend to compete at the 14U Slugfest, Powered By Cortes and Hay.
Like every other trip to Flemington this year, the Somerset County-based team went home with a championship.
Even though it played the entire weekend minus three starters, OOTP went unbeaten in four games, capped by a 4-2 win over the Diamond Jacks Super 14U, to win its fifth tournament of the year at ‘The Nation.’
The numbers attained by OOTP since making the move up to 60-90 fields beginning with the Fall 2023 season are staggering: 17-2 last year, 49-4 in the 2024 Spring/Summer campaign and now 4-0 as a 14U team in Fall ‘24 season.
That’s an overall record of 70-6. And at Diamond Nation in 2024, they are 23-0, with a 225-21 run differential. At the Slugfest, their three pool-play wins were by shutout.
So how do they do it, especially during a weekend when they were short three standouts?
“As a team, 1-through-11 can hit the ball really well,” said Cole Webster, who was the winning pitcher in the final after a crucial 3⅓ inning relief stint. “We pride ourselves on pitching, defense and hitting. We were missing three guys, but most teams have a top four group of power hitters. Everyone on our team can really hit.”
The Diamond Jacks had OOTP on the ropes early, scoring twice in the top of the first and placing runners on second and third with two out in the second, still ahead by two runs.
That’s when Webster entered, and he induced a first-pitch foul out to first baseman Nick Yacykewych.
Webster went on to allow one hit, with two strike outs and one walk, before yielding to Cody Alicea, who pitched a scoreless sixth. The 1:50 game clock expired at the conclusion of the inning.
Lucas Funk of the OOTP Cyclones was named 14U Slugfest MVP.
“I was just trying to pound the zone and throw strikes,” Webster said. “It was important to settle things down and not let up too many runs.”
The Diamond Jacks took advantage of control issues by the OOTP starter to take the early lead. Chase Hallett and Nick Stangota opened the game with walks, and then moved to second and third on stolen bases. Greyson Letang hit a one-out sacrifice fly to center, and Remington Mortman hit a two-out RBI single to right field.
OOTP closed to 2-1 in the bottom of the third. Dylan Boehm led off with a first-pitch double to the left field corner. He advanced on a passed ball and scored when Brad Bateman grounded out to second.
The Cyclones went ahead by scoring twice in the third. Webster reached on a strike-three wild pitch with one out, and he scored on Gianni Cinicola’s triple to left field. Yacykewych followed with an RBI single to right field.
The Cyclones added an insurance run in the fifth. Lucas Funk singled to center with one out, stole second and went to third on a wild pitch. Andrew Schmieder walked, and Funk scored by stealing home on a successfully-executed first-and-third play.
Funk was 2-for-3 in the game and went 7-for-9 in the final three games of the tournament. He also pitched a five-inning no-hitter in the final pool play game earlier on Sunday. He was named tournament MVP.
His efforts illustrated how OOTP can fall behind in a game, just like they did in a thrilling Father’s Day Classic championship victory in June, but keeping them down through the duration is so difficult.
“I wasn’t scared one bit after we fell behind,” Funk said. “Our bats, our hitting and our defense make us hard to beat.”