Elite 8
Lightning Baseball vs. South Shore Sea Dogs @ Myrtle Beach High School
Thursday July 28, 2005
On Thursday evening, two New England rivals met each other in the quarterfinals of the 13U national tournament at Myrtle Beach High School. Having played each other 5 times prior to Thursday’s match up, the Lightning held a 3-2 record versus the South Shore Sea Dogs as both teams represented the best of AAU baseball from New England.
This contest was an absolute slugfest that accounted for 24 total runs with a final score of 18-6 in favor of the Lightning. The high-powered Lightning offense opened up with a bang sending twelve hitters to the plate (3 walks, 4 singles, 2 doubles) in their seven run first inning. Connor Lyons (Bedford, NH) and Chris Splinter (Middleton, MA) initiated the damage by leading off the game with back to back singles. Jason Federico (Wakefield, MA) followed with a walk and both Evan Bunker (Topsfield, MA) and Greg Ladd (Danvers, MA) provided sacrifice flies to put the Lightning on the board. With Geoff Lynch (Georgetown, MA) drawing a base on balls, Michael Amaral (Tewksbury, MA), Kyle Levesque (Manchester, NH), Gavin Mahoney (Winthrop, MA), and Lyons broke the game wide open with four consecutive base hits.
With a 7-0 lead, the lightning defense managed to get out of a jam in the bottom half of the first as the Sea Dogs left the bases loaded. Levesque started the game for the Lightning but struggled early with control problems. Michael Amaral (Tewksbury, MA) relieved Levesque and battled the disciplined Sea Dogs into the third inning. The Sea Dogs displayed their offensive strengths as they fought back with two runs in the second and three runs in the third to make it a 10-5 ball game after the Lightning posted another three runs in the top half of the third. The fourth inning served as the dagger as the first five hitters reached for the Lightning and a total of six runs scored as the 13’s batted around once again. Five lightning players, including Splinter (who had 3 walks in the game), drew walks while Ladd drove in his third run of the game by way of a hard hit ground ball. The Lightning followed the monster fourth inning by adding two runs on a two out, two run single by Lynch.
Dan Lane (Weston, MA) and Dan Maddox (Bedford, NH) made an appearance for the Lightning out of the pen and helped reduce further damage by relieving Amaral and pitching into the fifth inning. With runners on first and second and no outs in the fifth, Bunker came in and shut the door, retiring the next three Sea Dog batters. The Lightning walked away with an 18-6 (mercy rule in five innings) victory. Notable statistics included Lyons (2 for 4, 1 walk, 1 RBI, 3 runs scored), Splinter (1 for 1, 3 walks, 2 RBI’s, 4 runs scored), and Amaral (2 for 4, 1 walk, 3 RBI’s, 1 run scored).
