Morfe brings the anticipated heat in tonight's Spring Breakout game (O's win 5-4)

SARASOTA, Fla. – He’s listed at 5 feet 8 and his 19^th birthday is three months away. The Orioles promoted him from the Dominican Summer League to the Class A level last season. Height and age didn’t factor into how they treated him.

Results and a 70-grade fastball got Venezuelan right-hander Keeler Morfe moving faster than expected.

Morfe has grown into the No. 9 prospect in the organization according to MLB Pipeline rankings and the Orioles chose him to start tonight’s Spring Breakout game against the Yankees at Ed Smith Stadium.

The kid announced his presence with seven pitches to leadoff hitter George Lombard Jr. at 98-99 mph. The last, clocked at 99, struck him out.

The bingo card was filled – two runs, two hits, two walks, one strikeout, one wild pitch, one hit batter in two-thirds of an inning. Morfe threw 32 pitches and they kept catcher Samuel Basallo busy. But there’s no denying the stuff. It’s real impressive.

“It’s an extremely high-velocity fastball, and the composure of the young kid is exciting as well,” said director of player development Anthony Villa. “To be able to go from the Dominican Summer League straight to lower-A Delmarva, I think he’s the first player in the international program in the (Mike) Elias era to do something like that. It’s really cool.”

Morfe made the jump after allowing two earned runs and striking out 38 batters in 22 innings. His 6.75 ERA and nine walks in 10 2/3 innings with the Shorebirds didn’t smudge the shine.

“Super young, still developing both physically and maturity wise,” Villa said. “Thought he took a big step this past season, second year in the Dominican Summer League, just maturing and bettering his routines.”

Villa described tonight’s start in front of an announced crowd of 6,680 as “pressure packed.” Morfe had to feel it.

He hit Spencer Jones with a 99 mph fastball, gave up back-to-back singles to Rafael Flores and Jesus Rodriguez and threw a wild pitch. The four-seam was 97-99. Roderick Arias ran the count full with the Yankees ahead 1-0, and he drew a walk when Morfe slipped while delivering a pitch. T.J. Rumfield also worked the count full and walked to force in another run. Morfe again was hitting 99 mph but struggled to locate it.

Brendan Jones flied to left field and Levi Wells struck out Brando Mayea to leave the sacks full and complete Morfe’s line.

The Orioles’ outfield of Enrique Bradfield Jr. in left, Vance Honeycutt in center and Jud Fabian in right also captivated. Three athletic center fielders spread out, who can “go get it with the best of them,” Villa said.

“We’ve been joking all week,” Villa said. “Telling them, ‘Hey, if the ball drops, then you’re gonna hear it, we’re gonna be doing football drills or something in practice.’ It’s a pretty incredible group.”

Honeycutt, last year’s first-round pick and the No. 5 prospect, ran down everything in center field, including Lombard’s ball in deep center field with two runners on base in the fourth. And he really showed off his speed in the bottom half of the inning with an inside-the-park home run on a fly ball to left-center that took a high bounce against the fence. The Yankees were slow with the relay and Honeycutt dove across the plate with the tying run.

Fabian ran down Rumfield’s drive to the warning track in right-center in the sixth, leaping at the last instant to make the catch. Rumfield stood and admired his fly ball upon making contact. Fabian stole his moment.

Bradfield singled into left field leading off the bottom of the first inning, raced to third base on Carlos Lagrange’s errant pickoff throw and scored on a wild pitch. He reached on an infield single in the sixth on a comebacker that nailed pitcher Ben Hess, stole second base, moved to third on a grounder and scored the go-ahead run on Dylan Beavers’ single.

That’s what speed do.

It also enabled Beavers to steal second base.

Manager Chris Madera began emptying his bench in the seventh and left fielder Thomas Sosa (No. 22) broke to his left on a fly ball, raced to his right and didn’t get close to it. The wind can be tricky, and if it isn’t the sun causing issues, it’s the lights.

The Yankees scored the tying run against Chase Allsup on a leadoff walk, the gift double and a ground ball. Austin Overn tied it in the ninth with a triple that scored DJ Layton.

Basallo, the No. 1 prospect in the system and 13^th in baseball, went 0-for-3 but he threw out Engelth Urena trying to steal third base. He’s hit two long home runs with the Orioles, and his eight RBIs are tied for second on the club behind Ryan Mountcastle’s 10.

“He’s been super impressive,” Villa said. “Nine-hundred total feet of homers is cool. I think what’s been even more impressive, though, is just how he’s handling the limelight, the success, and with that comes handling your failures. He’s done a really nice job of remaining even keel when he makes an out or has a bad at-bat. He’s had some tough pinch-hit opportunities during spring training, which is always great for his development. So been really pleased with the emotional maturity.”

Wells, who impressed in his one appearance with the Orioles, tossed 1 1/3 scoreless innings. He also hit Spencer Jones with a pitch.

No. 10 prospect Patrick Reilly retired the side in order and struck out two batters in the third, going 97 mph on back-to-back pitches to Rumfield. He returned for the fourth, walked two batters and escaped the jam.

Luis De León, who’s the 14^th prospect, retired the side in order in the fifth and struck out Arias.

“De León continues to grow in all facets of the game,” Villa said. “The velocity continues to tick up, the command. It’s a really slow heartbeat, which is great. Just a really calm presence.”

Nestor German (No. 11) stranded a runner in the sixth after a single, benefiting from Fabian’s impressive grab. The Yankees went ahead 4-3 with a run off Braxton Bragg in the eighth. He allowed two hits and struck out two.

Twenty-one of the organization’s top 30 prospects made the roster. The Orioles have graduated a bunch to the majors and traded others, but they replenish the system.

“There’s been some highlights for me in camp,” said manager Brandon Hyde. “Basallo’s been one. A few of the pitchers who aren’t in camp with us, I’ve been extremely impressed with, and it’s been so fun to watch these guys throwing upper 90s, 100 mph.”

Two of those pitchers got into tonight’s game – Wells and De León. Hyde expects Zach Fruit, whose fastball reached 100.3 mph in Tampa, to pitch for the Orioles in another exhibition game.

“Those are huge arms and that’s been fun to watch,” Hyde said.

Update: Infielder Leandro Arias, the No. 20 prospect, lined a two-out single into center field to score Overn (No. 29) and give the Orioles prospects a 5-4 win.

Teammates called over Arias and dumped a cooler of Gatorade over his head.

“Very exciting, especially in that moment,” he said via interpreter Brandon Quinones. “I felt like there was great energy all game and I was very happy I was able to come through there.”

Morfe, who appears a few inches taller than his listed 5 feet 8, said he was a little nervous, “but it was a proud moment for me and my family.”

“It was great to be able to come out here and be able to compete,” he said via Quinones. “Just going to keep working hard and hopefully the opportunity comes around next year to pitch in the Spring Breakout game, I’ll have some better results.”

Honeycutt didn’t know right away that he had a shot at an inside-the-park home run. Tonight was his first.

“I kind of got help with some wind, I guess, and then once I saw it drop, just keep running,” he said. “And (Collin) Woody gave me the go-ahead, so just try to keep running as fast as I could.”

As for sharing the outfield with other prospects, Honeycutt said, “It was really cool. Cover a lot of ground out there, and two guys that I definitely learned a lot from, so it’s good.”

Bradfield fought back tears while talking to the media. His childhood friend and former travel ball teammate, Isaiah Hood, 25, died Wednesday in a motorcycle accident.

The emotions were raw, his eyes moist.

“For me to come out here, it meant a lot to me personally,” Bradfield said. “To be able to give my mom a hug and see how emotional she is, see my sister come out here. I played for my friend. It was tougher than I expected, but you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do, so I hope he’s resting up there. It’s been a tough week for everybody that I’ve been around - my family, my friends, his family. Playing with a heavy heart.

“A very quiet kid. Once you got him in a comfortable setting, he opened up. A great friend, great person, great big brother, great son all the way around. There’s a lot of people, including myself, including my family, who are hurting right now. Just made the past couple of days very tough. Trying to stay busy, keep my mind in good spirits, but at the end of the day it’s a loss of life that can’t be replaced. It’s just hard, very hard and tragic all the way around.”