The 13u Lightning team came into the March Mayhem tournament with high hopes of competing as the TEAM has made tremendous strides early in the year.  Unfortunately, their hopes weren’t to be on this weekend.

Game 1 on Saturday was delayed over an hour due to rainy conditions and shortened game times on the day. To add to the game 1 craziness leftfielder Tanner T (1st inning) made a diving attempt on a foul ball and ended up having to leave the game with a wrist injury.  It was learned later that Tanner T ended up breaking his wrist.  As the game finally unfolded too many walks by Lightning pitchers and only two hits by the offense doomed the TEAM as they lost to Southern Nevada 5-3.  Game 2 on the day wasn’t much better as the Lightning just couldn’t get the offense going again as they lost to the Bad News Tigers 7-0.  The Lightning TEAM only had 3 hits on the day and scored 3 runs.  Not a good formula for winning baseball.

Sunday was a different story for the Lightning.  They were matched up again against the Bad News Tigers, a team they were shutout by on Saturday, but this time the outcome would be DIFFERENT.  A win would advance the TEAM into the championship game in the Silver Division.  And WIN they did as they CRUSHED the Tigers 16 - 1.  The pitching was dominated for the Lightning by Brayden S as he limited the Tigers to 3 hits and the defense also supported his pitching performance.  The 16 runs were created by 15 hits and 5 walks. James O, who hit in all 4 games during the weekend, had 4 hits and 6 RBI’s, Sebastion L had 3 hits and 2 RBI’s, Brayden S had 3 hits and 3 RBI’s and Coop had 2 hits.  It was an encouraging turn around since the TEAM only had 3 hits and scored 3 runs on day 1.

Advancing to the championship game against the LV Boys would turn out to be a great baseball game.  The Lightning were led on the mound by Kaleb S and he was stellar for 3 innings.  In fact, his efforts allowed the Lightning to take a 4-1 lead heading into the bottom of the 4th where a couple defensive miscues allowed the LV Boys to tie the game.  The Boys would end up scoring single runs in the 5th & 6th innings and the Lightning just couldn’t mount any type of serious threat as they would end up on the wrong side of the scoreboard 6-4.

Overall, it was great to see how the TEAM bounce back to play the type of baseball they are capable of playing on Sunday.  Its still a long season.  Keep going TEAM!