Lightning strikes in Florida

Lightning Baseball wins bronze medal
at USA Baseball Jr. Olympic Tourney

The Lightning Baseball 16 year-old-team left for Florida realizing they were good, but weren't quite sure how they'd fare when paired up against the top Under-16 baseball players in the country.

They came home to New England a week later with stories galore, smiles as wide as Fenway's power alley and bronze medals that no one -- not even the players and coaches themselves expected to have.

"It was the most unbelievable experience, one that I don't think any of us are going to forget," said Peabody's Marc Duffy, a catcher for the 12-man Lightning Baseball AAU squad that captured the bronze medal at the Junior Olympics 16-and-Under tournament, sponsored by USA Baseball, held in June at the spring training home of the Montreal Expos and St. Louis Cardinals in Jupiter, Fla.

By winning the Bronze Medal, Lightning Baseball became the first Northern team to ever leave this prestigious tournament with medals triumphantly draped around their necks.

"We played every game as the underdog, and I really believe we fed off of that," said Duffy, who has hit .400 and .380 in his two varsity seasons at Bishop Fenwick. "This is my fourth year as a member of the Lightning, and it's always been a dream of mine to win a national title. To do as well as we did in a tournament as big as this ... it was like a magical ride."

The Lightning played a total of 10 games over six days, winning seven of them. After finishing with a 3-2 record in the "pool play" portion of the tournament and being seeded number 20 out of 32 teams advancing to the second round, they reeled off three straight victories -- including two in one day over Florida teams ranked ahead of them -- before falling to the eventual National Champions in the semifinals.

Of the Lightning's seven victories, six of those were of the one-run variety. "You had to bring your best game every single day to the ballpark. The competition was that good," said first baseman Ryan Hayes of Danvers. "I think we were all a little tentative at first, and that may have led to our slow start. But gradually we got to know what to expect of ourselves and the other teams, and we started playing the way we knew we could. We all came out of this as much better baseball players because of it."

The Lightning -- composed of Jeff Allison, Mark Shorey, Mark Sakelakos, Duffy and Matt Antonelli (St. John's Prep) of Peabody, Hayes and Billy Haskell of Danvers, Jason Blydell of Swampscott, Chris Greeke of Hamilton-Wenham, Ryan Williams of Lynnfield (via St. John's Prep), Wayne Mackay of Melrose and Ryan Hutzler of Andover (via Belmont Hill) -- topped the Florida Eagles, 2-1, in their opener behind Allison's complete game effort. But after losses to the Orlando Scorpions (12-7) and the Texas Banditos (5-3), they found themselves needing wins in their final two pool play games to earn one of the Top 32 seeds heading into the next round of play.

"We weren't as confident as we should have been when we first went down there," said the 6-foot-2, 190-pound Allison, the definite cream of a very impressive Lightning crop. "The competition down there was flawless, and we had to rise up and match it. But as soon as we realized we could, we started playing better and better against the better teams."

Accepting that challenge, the Lightning knocked off the Durham (N.C.) Bulls and the Florida Lightning to earn the No. 20 seed in the single-elimination bracket. That's when the fun started. Allison, who constantly hit between 91 and 93 mph on radar guns in Florida, fired a one-hitter to beat the Miami Raiders, 3-0. Haskell powered the offense by going 2-for-2 with a pair of runs scored.

From there it was on to face the tourney's No. 3 seed, the Florida Titans, in the Sweet 16. With their new-found confidence firmly in place, Lightning Baseball rallied to win in nine innings, 4-3. Allison got it done both ways, knocking in Shorey (who had doubled) with a two-out single in the top of the ninth while also earning the victory on the hill in relief.

Twenty minutes later, they took the field against the Tampa Tornadoes, last year's AAU 15-year-old national champs. Undaunted, the Lightning prevailed, 6-5, as Shorey pitched two innings in relief of Haskell to get the win. Allison (who else) pitched the final inning for the save and also went 2-for-4 with two RBI. Hayes (2-4, 3 RBI) and Duffy (2-2) were other hitting stars.

"What these guys did overall was amazing, but particularly that one day, where we beat two nationally ranked teams in a span of seven hours, was almost unbelievable," said Lightning manager Rob Nash, who piloted the club along with coach Kevin Winship. "The bronze was more than we could have hoped for. We were just trying to put on a good showing, but to come home with a medal was a phenomenal accomplishment."

The Lightning's remarkable ride ended in the semifinals, when they lost to the eventual champs, Team Florida-USA, 11-1. "They had seven high school All Americans on their team. You'd swear you were playing the Yankees," said Nash.

But Lightning Baseball still had a few bolts left in their arsenal. Shorey got the win and Williams earned the save as they ended a fantastic trip by beating the Columbus (Fla.) Explorers, 9-8, in the consolation game. Antonelli had a big game by going 2-for-2 with three walks and three runs scored while Shorey added two hits and five RBI. Hayes also had another solid day with two hits and a key RBI.

"I don't get nervous in those big situations. I like being the guy up there when there's a chance to get a big run home," said Hayes, who won state titles at Danvers High in both hockey and baseball this past school year. "I have the confidence in myself that I'll get the job done."

For the tournament, Allison went 3-0 with two savs and a remarkable 0.37 ERA. He struck out 21 in 19 innings while walking only three. Shorey was 3-1 with a 2.86 ERA, while Greeke pitched 5 2/3 innings of relief, picking up a win over the Durham Bulls. Duffy, meanwhile, caught every inning of every game.

Shorey also paced the offense by hitting .515 (17-for-33) out of the No. 3 spot with nine RBI. Antonelli hit .438 (14-for-32) with five walks and three RBI, while Allison hit .367 and Haskell .318.

The Lightning 16 s will now set their sights on the AAU National Championships in Virginia Beach, which begins July 25. The same 12 ballplayers will head down to show their bronze medal showing in Florida wasn't a fluke while hoping to fare even better this time around.

"Our pitching was fantastic, we got the timely hitting and the defense made all the big plays. We couldn't have asked for any more," said Duffy. "Now the trick is taking it one step further. We know we can play with the country's best, and want to see just how good we can be."

State Tournament Victors