Saturday afternoon was the Thomas Morton show as the 12U Dodgers Nation cruised to a 12-2 victory over Batting 1.000 in Day 3 of the Brian Moore Memorial Tournament. The oppressive heat could not contain the hard-throwing RHP and slugger as he dominated to the tune of 10 strikeouts and 3 extra-base hits at the plate.
When asked if he’s ever had a game like this before he said, “yes, a few,” and that at the plate he tries to “not swing too hard and just trust my strength.”
It certainly worked as he tripled to left field in his first at bat, although they did not get on the board in the first.
He struck out the side in the bottom of the first needing just 12 pitches to do so.
In the top of the second, Chase Palma led off with a single to left and stole second base. Jayden Ramirez ripped one to right field but it was hit so hard he was thrown out at first base. It did move Palma to third, though, and he scored when Dillon Purchik singled to center to make it 1-0. The next two hitters were retired to end the inning.
Morton went back to work in the second inning, working around a two-out single and walk to strike out two more batters – bringing his total to five.
In the top of the third, the game certainly slowed down its pace as Dodgers Nation bated around and posted six runs to open the game wide open. Batting 1.000 made a couple pitching changes but the Ddogers offense was in a rhythm. The rally was set by two walks to Ryan Hanson and Ethan Jeon before Morton crushed a two-run triple to right to make it 3-0. Nico Milani scored him with an RBI double of his own and he scored on Palma’s RBI single to make it 5-0.
Morton has been incredible today. He’s now 3-for-3 with 3 RBI and 2 triples. He’s also working with a 12-2 lead in the fourth pic.twitter.com/ssRWKDC5jU
— Axcess Baseball LI (@axcessbaseball) July 18, 2020
To their credit, Batting 1.000 did not go down easily. They did post two runs in the bottom of the third with the rally starting on a single by William Shlomm and he scored on an RBI single by Frankie Maiorano and an error that scored him. Morton was able to settle down and record two strikeouts in the inning.
In the top of the fourth, Ryan Hanson tripled over the right fielder’s head to set another rally in motion. After a walk, Ethan Jeon scored them both with a two-run double and Morton stroked another extra-base hit, this time a double to right field to open up a 10-2 lead. Nico Milani extended it to 11-2 with an RBI double to center and Ramirez delivered the final blow with an RBI single to left.
Morton went back out for the fourth inning needing to keep the Seminoles off the board in order to complete the run-rule victory. He worked around a single and a walk and finished the game off with a strikeout.
When asked about whether he enjoys hitting or pitching more, he did not hesitate to say pitching.
Dodgers Nation are back in action this morning at 8:30am against South Shore Sharks at Wantagh Park while Batting 1.000 are playing Plainview Hawks at 9am. The championship will be at 3:00 at Wantagh.
