13's Win Silver Medal
at AAU National Championship
in Kinston, NC

Read the WHOLE story, game-by-game!

Lightning Strikes Opening Blow at AAU Nationals

Kinston, NC 7/28/00…

Lightning Baseball of New England opened the 13U AAU National Championship in convincing fashion with a 15-5 win over the Play Ball All-Stars from Reading, PA. At South Lenoir HS. The game started on a good note for Lightning Baseball as Head Coach Rick Petersen, Andover, MA won the coin flip and elected to be home team.

Bobby Brown, Chelmsford, MA hurls Lighting Baseball
to win over Pennsylvania state champs.

Starting pitcher Bobby Brown, Chelmsford, MA. Set the All-Stars down in order on 12 pitches. In the bottom of the first Lightning struck quickly scoring two runs on singles by Chris Young, Marblehead, MA and Aaron Feinberg, Stoneham, MA and an error by the All-Star SS.

In the second inning, the Lightning would put together their biggest inning of the tournament. The starting pitcher for the All-Stars, Chris Karker (6’ 2" 175 lb.) could only throw a 75 mph+ fastball which the Lightning bats quickly jumped on. Ryan Kane, Nahant, MA led off the inning with a line single to left and Dan Harris, West Boylston, MA walked. Brendan Stokes, Tewksbury, MA followed with a thundering triple to right center on a 3-2 pitch to make the score 4-0. Tim Hughes, Andover, MA walked, stole 2b and 3b and scored when Brown reached on an error. Ian Merry, Salem, MA running for Brown stole second and scored on Feinberg’s second single in as many innings. Merry’s great fade away slide at the plate allowed him to score and good base running by Feinberg got him to second on the throw and to 3^rd on a passed ball. Alex (Louie) Aguilar Newbury, MA then followed with a ground out to short (after fouling off several tough pitches with two strikes) driving in Feinberg. With the score 8-0 two outs and nobody on base the Lightning were still not through. Justin Schaeffer, North Reading, MA started another rally with a walk and Kane followed with his second single of the inning. After a passed ball moved up both runners Harris hit a grounder right back to the pitcher who inexplicably threw the ball into right field. When the dust had cleared the lightning had scored 8 runs on 4 hits, 3 walks and 2 errors.

The All-Stars scored a lone run in the top of the 3^rd on 2 hits and a walk but the Lightning answered with two in the bottom half. Hughes doubled and scored after and Brown walked and Aguilar singled. Merry running again for Brown stole home on a short passed ball for the second run of the inning.

In the top of the 4^th the Play Ball All-Stars plated two runs on 2 hits a walk and an error. The Lightning did not strike this time leaving the score Lightning 12 and All-Stars 3 at the end of four. The All-Stars scored twice more in the top of the 5^th to close the gap to 12-5 but the Lightning struck the knockout blow in the bottom of the fifth.

Hitting Coach, Doug Henson, Southboro, MA asked the team to use Coach Pickel’s, Burlington, MA favorite offensive weapon --- the "5 Spot" and that’s almost what they did. Brown led off with a double. Feinberg then plated Merry (running for Brown) with a single to right. Aguilar, Schaeffer and Harris walked to make the score 14-5 and Stokes followed with a sacrifice fly to drive in the run ending the game because of the mercy rule.

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