From the Lighting Team website:
Lightning Finish 4th at ASA Major
The Lightning had a great weekend at the ASA Major National Championship in South Bend, IN. The opening game was a 7-0 victory over the Anderson Lawmen of Anderson, IN followed by a 2-1 victory over the ISC #13 ranked Minnesota Angels.
The Lightning then faced the defending ISC Champion Kitchener Rivershark Twins and dropped a 9-0 decision. Kitchener went on to win the tournament with an 11-2 victory over the Broken Bow Travelers. The next game for the Lightning was a 2-0 victory over the ISC #6 ranked Midland Explorers. The Lightning finally scratched out 2 runs in the top of the ninth inning off of All-American pitcher Frank Cox to earn the victory. The following game also lasted nine innings as the Lightning were eliminated from the tournament in a rematch with the Minnesota Angels by a score of 1-0. The Angels pitcher, Mitch Hardy, did not allow a hit in the game.
This was the best finish for the Lightning in three appearances at the ASA Major Tournament and a great step up after winning the Class A National Championship in 2009. The Lightning finished ahead of several teams that have much bigger budgets and bring in players from all over the world. Adam Saylor was named 2nd Team All-American as an outfielder and Sean Kelly was named 1st Team All-American after pitching all 5 games for the Lightning.
Editor’s notes: The # 25 ranked Lightning certainly look like a team on the rise as they head towards the ISC World Tournament in their home state of Michigan. Sean Kelly has turned in a number of outstanding pitching performances against top 10 teams and the Lightning hitters have found ways to score in the clutch, as they did in their 9 inning win over # 6 ranked Midland Explorers. Though falling in an elimination contest to Minnesota, the 1-0 score against a very strong #16 team shows consistency by the Lightning. Great efforts, even against higher ranked opponents.
The Lightning drew the honor of playing the very first game at the 2010 ISC World Tournament, this Friday night, (as in Friday the 13th) at 5pm EDT against the Shakespeare Falcons of Ontario, Canada.
The winner of that contest draws the honor of playing in the first video broadcast from the tournament, against two-time defending champions, #2 ranked Kitchener Rivershark Twins, at 4pm Saturday, August 14. That video broadcast is being streamed free of charge, before the start of the pay-per-view broadcast program that begins at 7pm
For further details on the streaming program, visit the ISC website, http://www.iscfastpitch.com