LITH Thunder host with the most

Lauren M. Anderson - landerson@nwherald.com

E-mail this story

Print this story

Share

CRYSTAL LAKE – The main objective of Lake in the Hills Thunder’s 15-year-old baseball team was to prove it was worthy of being a host team for the USSSA Open Summer National Championships.

That goal was accomplished Monday afternoon when pitcher Michael Wood threw a complete game in the Thunder’s 12-3 victory over the GABA Eagles in Division 5 of the tournament, organized by the McHenry County Youth Sports Association.

The win assured the Thunder(3-2) will be the only local team in the championship bracket when double elimination play starts Wednesday. The other five local teams will compete in the double-elimination consolation bracket.

“To see the excitement on their faces that they were advancing was something,” Thunder coach Mark Lonigro said. “We’re rookies as hosts. [MCYSA president] Jack [Sebesta] gave us the opportunity to step in as a host, and I couldn’t be happier to get where we are.”

The Thunder lost to the South Oakland A’s, 13-1, on Sunday night, but Lonigro credited pitcher Brandon Seiser for eating up innings against one of the tournament’s top teams and saving other pitchers for Monday.

“I knew South Oakland was a tough team and a classy group,” Lonigro said. “I told them when we beat this team you guys can all thank Brandon for keeping our pitchers fresh.”

It turned out, Wood was the only pitcher the Thunder needed Monday.

“It feels really cool that I got to be a part of getting us into the championship bracket,” said Wood, a sophomore at Crystal Lake South. “We started a little rough, with a couple errors, but we ended up hitting the ball well.”

The new goal is for the Thunder to experience playing one of the international teams; Japan and Puerto Rico are the two in the championship bracket.

“It’s nice to be the best host team, and to be the only host team to advance,” said Seiser, a sophomore at South who also plays first base. “We want to play an international team in a featured game here, one that really matters.”

The Crystal Lake Cardinals’ 7-6 loss to the Northbrook Gladiators wound up being costly. The Cardinals rebounded with a 10-2 victory over Dominican Pimentel Monday night. Had they finished 3-2, they could have made the championship bracket.

Division play in the 15s tournament produced four 5-0 teams – Japan, Black Diamond (Ill.), Southern Illinois Bullets and South Oakland (Mich.).

In the 11s tournament, the Lake in the Hills Thunder and Lake in the Hills Eagles both finished 3-1.