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8u Lightning Becomes First LVBA Team to Win Desert Fall Classic

By Chase LaComb, 10/31/17, 9:15PM PDT

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Congratulations to the 8u Lightning baseball team for winning the 8u Championship for the LVBA Desert Fall Classic Tournament.  This marks the first time in the 27 year career of the DFC, that a Lightning team was won the tournament.  All the hard work and dedication from the players and parents allowed this fall into place.  

Game 1 of the tournament the 8u team played CBA Blast. In a rough opening game they were defeated 9-0 despite strong pitching from Ridge Orton and Ryder Schuette.  With a small setback to open the tournament the Lightning team was eager to play their best against the Rangers (CA).  Taking full advantage of extra bases from the other team, the bats came awake and scored 12 runs in the first two innings.  A great bounce back win for the team with a final score of 15-1.

On Saturday, set to face difficult Vegas foes, the boys were facing the top arms from the opposing teams. First game of the day against the Vegas Desert Storm, was an extremely competitive and defensive oriented game.  The Desert Storm took advantage of early opportunities and jumped out to a commanding lead.  The Lightning players never gave in and continued to grind away against the competitive pitching.  Facing a difficult situation, down 7-2 in the last inning they struck together a few quality at bats.  Patient hitting from the bottom of the order led to huge base hits by Rocco Germano and Marco Cooper.  The team continued to fight throughout the inning finding ways to get on base, before Noah Henneman hit a bases clearing double for a walk off base hit.  Winners: Lightning 8 and Desert Storm 7.  Second game on Saturday the Lightning competed against the familiar Vegas Express.  Lightning jumped out to an early lead and never looked back.  Great offensive performances in this game by Jayson Marquez and Jack Dutro. Outstanding pitching by Ridge Orton and Rocco Germano sealed the deal for the team.  Final score was 5-3 Lightning securing a bid to the Championship game on Sunday.  

Set to face the Vegas Express in the championship, the players were excited and ready to go.  A back and forth battle throughout the early part of the game gave the feeling of whoever could stop the other team from scoring first would be victorious.  Marco Cooper gave his best efforts on the mound before relieving the ball to Jake Gottsmith.  Jake threw two shutout innings, thanks to outstanding defense by Cash Robinson, Ryder Schuette and Marco Cooper.  That created the opportunity for the Lightning bats to stay on fire. A seven run 5th inning highlighted by key hits from Vincent Sorrillo and Ridge Orton allowed the Lightning to win 12-4 by run rule in the championship.  Jayson Marquez had the game clinching RBI.  Congrats to all the players as it was a total team effort.  This experience will be remembered for many years as the very first LVBA team to win the DFC Tournament.