Team shows out, scores 119 runs while allowing 23
On Aug. 11, the All Out Pack 12-and-under baseball team traveled to play at All Star Village in Cooperstown, N.Y. where 53 travel teams throughout the country converged to compete against each other in a week-long tournament.
As a baseball player, kids talk about going to Cooperstown to compete in this tournament for years. This tournament is the last tournament before the boys move to the larger field in preparation for high school baseball.
The tournaments cost was $15,000 for the team which includes the team barrack, food and drink, ticket to the Hall of Fame and the cost of the tournament. The players on the team did not have to pay any money because the trip was donated by Matteo Scrap Iron located in West Deptford.
The All Out team is based out of the South Jersey Bullpen which is located in East Greenwich and conducts all of their training from there. The kids have trained throughout the entire winter and played in numerous tournaments throughout the spring and summer in preparation for the Cooperstown Tournament. The team’s roster included
- Vinny Davis of Gloucester Township
- Luke Hinkle of Gibbstown
- Josh Herner of East Greenwich
- Kyle Kupsey of East Greenwich
- Nick Brown of East Greenwich
- Nick Matteo of East Greenwich
- Cole McKenna of West Deptford
- Ryan Heenan of West Deptford
- Corey Lyle of Mantua
- Tommy Formisano of Bellmawr
- Tommy O’Connor of Bellmawr
- Jared Dziergowski of Washington Township
- Jack Fitzpatrick of Washington Township
- Coach Greg Santora
- Coach Matt Gall
The boys were eager to play in their final tournament of the year and realized how talented they were. They were anxious to see how their talents measured up against 52 other teams throughout the country that all had the goal of winning the title. During their trip, the boys also visited the National Baseball Hall of Fame.
Every team in the tournament was guaranteed to play seven games After the first 6 games of the tournament, all of the teams were seeded, one to 53, according to their record. The All Out Pack played six pool play games and won all of their games. The results of the games were as follows:
After pool play, All Out was seeded №2of the 53 teams while Saginaw, Michigan secured the №1 overall seed.
On Thursday, Aug. 16, All Out began the single elimination tournament playing Clarksboro, Maryland and won 20–0 while belting nine home runs in a 3.5 inning game that was stopped due to the 10-run rule. Next, the boys played an extremely talented Langhorne, Pennsylvania team who beat them in a tournament earlier in the year. All Out won the game 8–6 and moved on to the semi-final contest against West Chester, New York. All Out came out hitting in the contest and won 15–3 in 3.5 innings and was stopped due to the 10-run rule.
All Out was then set to play in the championship game against Saginaw who had been destroying teams throughout the tournament. Coming into the championship game, Saginaw, had hit a combined 46 home runs in the tournament. The talk throughout All Star Village was that All Out did not have a chance against the Saginaw team who were extremely talented and had their ace slated to start the championship game.
All Out pitcher, Lyle received the start on the mound. All Out took the lead 1–0 on a Herner solo home run in the first inning. Saginaw subsequently took a 3–1 lead until Lyle hit a solo home run to bring All Out within one run at 3–2. Going into the top of the fifth inning, All Out was losing 3–2 and subsequently scored three runs in the top of the fifth to take the lead 5–3 on a solo home run by Kupsey and a huge 2-RBI single by Herner. Lyle held Saginaw scoreless in the third, fourth, fifth and sixth inning and All Out won the championship in a 74-pitch complete game.
In the tournament, All Out had 10 wins without losing a game. They scored 119 runs and the pitchers only allowed 23 runs against them, combining to throw 5 shutouts.
As a team, All Out had a .428 batting average for the tournament and hit 34 home runs while Davis, Hinkle, McKenna and Kupsey combined for 19 of them. In the championship, Lyle pitched six innings pitched, threw 74 pitches and allowed just three runs allowed and six hits, while striking out three.
