THE LIGHTNING BASEBALL EXPERIENCE

A TYPICAL SEASON

The typical season for all Lightning Baseball teams includes five components:

1. Fall Tryouts
2. Fall Clinics
3. Winter Workouts
4. Regular Season & Regional Tournaments
5. AAU National Championship Tournament

Fall Tryouts

Lightning Baseball holds tryouts in September with 3-4 sessions each year. Our primary tryout location is Twi-field in Danvers, MA. Our web site is updated in August each year with the dates, times and locations of each tryout. All new and retuning players must attend at least one session but they may attend all tryout dates. No returning players are automatically on a roster, they must tryout for all roster spots.

Fall Clinics

The fall season consists of three things, a hitting clinic, a pitching/throwing and catching clinic, and an Extra-Innings Membership.

1. The coaching staff of each team along with the experienced staff from Extra Innings conducts the 2-day “Fundamentals of Hitting” clinic. This clinic is conducted in two 3-hour sessions, on a Saturday and Sunday in November and is designed to provide each player with the basics mechanics of hitting which are used by all of our teams, 13U through 16U.
2. The coaching staff of each team along with members of the Extra Innings staff leads the 4-day “Fundamentals of Pitching, Throwing and Catching” clinic. This clinic is conducted in 1 - hour sessions for 4 consecutive dates in November.
3. An Extra-Inning membership is included in the cost of the Lightning Baseball program. This entitles you to cage time each week, unlimited use of the back room, plus discounts in the pro shop on clothing and equipment.

Winter Program

Lightning Baseball’s winter program, is conducted at the Extra-Innings Indoor Training facility in Middleton, MA. Our winter workouts are designed to build on the fundamentals learned in the Fall Clinics and to keep your body in baseball condition so we can hit the outdoor season in full stride.

1. The Lightning program conducts a total of 8 program wide workouts during the winter, 2 per month from December through March. Sessions are conducted from 8-11 AM on Saturday mornings at Extra Innings. Each session begins with a 15 minute featured speaker usually a former player like Rick Asadoorian-# 1 pick of the Red Sox in 1999, Mike Smith of the Blue Jays, Sam Fuld from, Stanford and Cubs or a college coach.
2. Some of teams also conduct weeknight workouts beginning in January and concluding in late March. The coaching staff uses these sessions to begin preparing the team for the move outdoors.

Regular Season

For our 13U-14U teams the regular season begins as soon as the fields become playable in the spring, usually the first weekend in April. Our 15U and 16U teams do not star until the high school season is completed.

During the regular season Lightning Baseball, for 13U-16U is your #1 sports priority. You can play on other teams but our games and practices take priority (except for middle school or high school teams). You cannot pitch on another team without our permission. If you pitch for your school team you must tell us when you pitched last, how many innings and pitches you threw, and when your coach plans to pitch you again. At ages 13U-16U you cannot play on your summer all-star team.

1. A typical week during the regular season consists of one midweek outdoor practice, one midweek indoor practice (at Extra Innings) and doubleheaders on Saturday and Sunday.
2. Scrimmages will be played early in the regular season against other AAU teams from MA, CT, RI, and NH as well as against high school JV and Freshman teams. These games will help prepare the team for the state qualifying games. Scrimmages will also be played, after the state tournament.
3. “Open Play Schedule” will allow those teams to schedule games as they see fit to help them prepare for the AAU Division I National Tournament. Lightning Baseball will use this open play schedule to play only the best competition available.
4. A New England Tournament will be held to determine which teams qualify for Div. 1 or Div. 2.

AAU National Championship Tournament (10 Days, 40 to 60 teams)

During the last week in July and the first week in August our teams will participate in the AAU Division I National Championship Tournament, which are held at various locations around the country.

A typical week at a National Tournament is as follows:

1. Thursday
1. Leave Boston early in the morning, check in to hotel and have lunch
2. Long practice in the hot sun to get acclimated to the weather, shower Dinner, lights out at 9:00 PM
2. Friday
1. 7:30 AM wake up call, light breakfast
2. Practice 10-2
3. Lunch, shower, free time
4. Opening ceremonies, dinner
5. Game Days (Saturday through Friday)
6. Breakfast, hitting practice
7. Game
8. Lunch, hitting practice/game (if it’s a double header day)
9. Regular practice and free time at hotel (if it is a single game day), Shower/Dinner
3. Tournament Structure
1. Pool play consists of four team pools where each team plays 3 games against the other teams in its pool. The top 2 teams from each pool and sometimes a few wild cards advance to the medal round. Teams that do not advance from this first pool move on to a losers bracket.
2. The Championship Round also consists of 4 team pools again where each team plays 3 games against other teams in its pool with the top 2 advancing to the Medal round.
3. The Medal round is an 8-team single elimination tournament with games played out to decide the standings from 1-8. All teams in this round earn a medal, Gold, Silver, Bronze, or Copper.

The formal Lightning Baseball season ends upon the return from the National Championship Tournament and winds up with a season ending banquet in September.