Now that the Baby Bombers have gone from Little League to Bush League, there's the matter of the carnage they left behind.

Literally from sea to sea.

Danny Almonte struck out 16 of the 18 batters he faced in his perfect game against Apopka, Fla., and he struck out 16 more in his one-hitter against Oceanside, Calif., and what we finally have now is an explanation.

Puberty.

I got a chance to meet the Oceanside kids on Friday, as they were being wined (okay, soda'd) and dined (burgers) by The Upper Deck Company, and at least they LOOKED like 12-year-olds. In fact, their most ferocious hitter, 4-foot-something Matt Cerda (.636 batting average), just turned 11 in June, meaning he was 10 when this baseball season started. So, sending him to the plate against a 14-year-old is tantamount to child abuse. And now that we know Almonte is virtually high school age, I applaud these Oceanside kids even more.

Because, the truth is, they only lost to him, 1-0. On a missed call by a blind second base umpire.

"When I heard he was 14, it made me feel a lot better," Cerda says. "I threw up my hands and said, 'Yeah! I got a foul tip off of a 14-year-old!"

"Him pitching against us, that's like me facing 9-year-olds," says Thomas Eukovich, the losing pitcher in that 1-0 game. "But it makes me feel happy now. Because I know I struck out a 14-year-old with the bases loaded. And I almost beat a 14-year-old."

None of them are surprised that Almonte's 14 -- "I knew it when he bought me that beer," joked one Oceanside parent -- but they still had a hard time coming to that realization on Friday.

Cerda, for instance, was precious talking about it.

Question: "Do you even hang out with 14-year-olds?"
Cerda: "Not really."
Q: "Isn't he like twice your size?"
Cerda: "Three times my size!"
Q: "And you had to lead off, didn't you?"
Cerda: "Yes. And I remember the first pitch. It was pretty fast."
Q: "You ever faced someone that fast?"
Cerda: "No. At least not a 12-year-old that fast."
Q: "Was it hard to lay off the pitches?"
Cerda: "Kind of, yeah. Because he threw a pretty good slider. Like with a 3-and-2 count, you'd be thinking fastball, and he'd throw a slider."
Q: "Had ever seen a slider before?"
Cerda: "No. But now I know what one looks like...His broke at the last minute. That's the pitch that impressed me the most."
Q: "It was better than his fastball?"
Cerda: "It was fast. But the slider...Kids my age, most don't even know how to throw a slider."
Q: " Do you have any 14 year olds you can sick on him?"
Cerda: "Like I said, don't know any."

As for the Oceanside parents, they pretty much bit their lips, although some couldn't help themselves. "Let our pitchers come back in two years, and see how good they are," said Dave Shore, the father of young team member Bobby Shore.

"It's disgusting," said Karen Eukovich, mother of Thomas. "We're trying to be gracious, but what really irked me is that [Almonte] hasn't even been in school. My kid was in school and then just spent his whole summer playing baseball. He just turned 13, and when you're 13, summer vacation is big. That's where memories are made. And then you hear [Almonte's father] say his boy has just been eating and playing ball. No school. That burns me."

"Well, their left fielder looked older than Almonte!" said another parent, Dennis Carroll, who is one of the coaches and the father of first baseman David Carroll. "His name was Carlos Garcia, and he was as big as I was. And it wasn't his height, it was his muscle. His legs were tree trunks. This kid was chiseled. Like a boxer. Remember Teofilo Stevenson, the Cuban boxer? That's who he reminded me of."

Oceanside's kids, instead, reminded me of...kids.

For instance, they had all wanted to slide down the hill behind the little league field in Williamsport, but their manager, Daryl Wasano, wouldn't let them until they lost. So, the first thing Eukovich did when Almonte beat them was slide down the hill.

And then Eukovich went home...and hurt his pitching wrist. Skateboarding.

Still innocent, even after all of this.

Tom Friend is a senior writer for ESPN The Magazine. E-mail him at tom.friend@espnmag.com.