Hustle Baseball catcher Joey Maiella fires throw to second base.
By Sean Reilly
The Hustle Baseball Academy 15U is in the midst of a very busy stretch of July action.
Dylan Temple is enjoying every bit of it.
“It’s fun,” he said. “It’s a lot of good baseball, and I like to play.”
A matchup on Wednesday morning against Clubhouse 14U from Connecticut at the Diamond Nation 15U World Series was Hustle Baseball’s eighth game in six days, and part of a stretch where it’s playing 18 times over 12 days.
Temple went 2-for-4 out of the third spot in the order, with a two-run double and three-run triple, as Hustle Baseball gained a 14-7 victory in Flemington.
John Deveau and Joaquin Phillips added two hits apiece for Hustle Baseball, which evened its record at 1-1 in the four-game showcase tournament. The Fairfield-based team never trailed in the game.
Hustle Baseball started quickly by scoring four times in the top of the first.
Aaron Wu led off by reaching on an error and Justin Acosta walked on a full count. Temple hit a double to left field that scored both.
John Croft from Clubhouse 14U made several strong plays at third base.
After a fly out, Temple stole third and scored when Joey Maiella doubled to left center. After Deveau’s single to right put runners on the corners, Logan Dorin hit a sacrifice fly to left field.
Clubhouse scored a run in the bottom of the frame when Martine Cano led off with a single to right and eventually scored on an error.
Hustle Baseball extended its lead to 6-1 in the top of the second. Daniel Lipsky led off with a first-pitch single to right and moved to second when Gavin Lubomski also singled to right. Dylan Flower’s one-out single to right scored the first run, and the other came home on a two-out error.
Clubhouse got both runs back in the bottom of the inning on a two-run double by James Evarts.
Hustle Baseball added four more runs with two out in the fifth. Temple came up with the bases loaded, and cleared the bases with a triple to center field. He scored when Nicholas Riley singled to center.
Clubhouse closed to 10-7 in the bottom of the fifth, with Zach Bohm reaching on an RBI fielder’s choice, Ryan Holmes hitting a two-run single and Luke Konfong sending an RBI single to center.
Hustle Baseball closed out the scoring with three runs in the sixth and added one more in the seventh.
Phillips hit a two-run triple and scored on Lipsky’s sacrifice fly to center to left in the sixth. Wu reached on a one-out error in the seventh, and scored on a triple from Justin Acosta.
Dorin allowed three three hits over the first four innings to earn the win for Hustle Baseball.
Temple followed up his performance against Clubhouse by going 2-for-2, with two runs and two RBI, in a 10-0 win over the RCBC Ghost 15U Americans on Thursday morning.
Nicholas Riley of Hustle Baseball rounds third base.
Hustle Baseball then beat Jersey Boyz 15U Mvargas, 6-1, to close out the event with three consecutive wins.
Temple is looking to continue to hit well after a solid season this spring for Delbarton’s freshman team.
“I want to keep working, keep getting bigger, stronger and faster, and improve my game,” he said. “I want to keep swinging the bats and hitting the ball well.”
Braydon Preisano finished 2-for-3 for Clubhouse 14U, which ended its tournament with a 3-1 record after scoring the final seven runs of the game to beat .9ers Baseball on Thursday morning.