Six local players led the Lightning AAU 14U team to a top-four finish at Nationals recently, held in Sarasota, Fla.
Peabody's Kevin Church, Sean Glabicky, Matt Tehan and Pat Murphy all played key roles for the Lightning along with Ray Arocho of Danvers and Charlie Behrens of Topsfield.
Arocho, who recently moved from Amesbury to Danvers, batted .300 with a homer and drove in seven runs, including a two-out RBI in the seventh inning to put the Lightning in the Final Four with a 6-4 victory over Weston Hawks of Florida. Church gave up three runs in the first inning and another in the second before shutting the Hawks down the rest of the way as his team rallied with six runs in the top of the seventh to win.
The Lightning then lost to the Tampa Warriors (the eventual tourney winners), 8-0, in the semifinals. They also dropped the consolation game to the Virginia Aces, 10-5, to place fourth overall.
In pool play, the Lightning beat Orland Park from Illinois and the South Shore Sea Dogs from Massachusetts before dropping their third game. In the next round, they beat Orland Park again and the Columbus Sharks of Ohio.
"Those two wins allowed us to save some pitching, and we had Glabicky left to pitch our knockout-round game," said coach Steve Gridley, who grew up in Peabody and has coached Lightning teams at Extra Innings in Middleton for seven years. "In our age group there were 16 teams, with the eight winners medaling and the eight losers going home."
The Lightning were in good shape with Glabicky, who pitched a complete game to beat the Hit Doctor Diamonds of Massachusetts. He allowed just three earned runs and struck out four. Glabicky hit .300 in the tournament and a blistering .500 in the Lightning's 44-game regular season.
Tehan batted .342 during the season and over .300 at Nationals with six RBIs, scoring eight runs and earning 10 walks. Church hit .364 in the 10-game tournament and was 2-0 on the mound to help Lightning post a 6-4 overall record. All three players were members of the Peabody West State Championship Little League team two years ago.
Murphy was hurt much of the year and only saw limited action at Nationals, but was solid defensively. Behrens hit .500, scored four runs, walked three times and made some nice catches in the field to help his team to a top-four finish.
For the past seven years, Gridley, who starred for Bishop Fenwick and Salem State, has been coaching with former ULowell standout Pete Feeley. The latter was drafted by the Tigers and played three years in the minors. They spent five years instructing the 14U and two more at the 16U level.
"This year, we had seven returning players and eight new kids, including all the locals, and it took a while to come together," said Gridley, who grew up in Peabody. "We went 31-13 in the regular season and States, but gelled at the right time.
"To me, Day 5 of Nationals stands out in my mind because Glabicky pitched a complete game, then Church beat the Weston Hawks to put us in the Final Four. The tying runs were driven in by Tehan, and the winning runs by Arocho.
"The new guys we had were some of the most talented I've ever coached," added Gridley. "Glabicky had the highest average, Arocho the most power (11 homers), and Church is one of the best lefties I've seen (10-2)."
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The third annual Tommy Goniprow Baseball Game between the Senior Babe Ruth League baseball alumni and this year's team was a huge success again this year. The game was played at Twi Field Aug. 28 and fittingly ended in a tie.
The contest raised a lot of money in honor of Tommy Goniprow, who died of cancer three years ago. All of the money raised goes into a fund in Tommy's name for a scholarship to a graduating player from the Danvers Senior League team, and a contribution to the Dana Farber Cancer Center is also made each year.
His friends and family come together for a family event with a moon bounce and many raffle prizes.
Goniprow was an avid sports fan, especially baseball. As a youngster, he played football, soccer, basketball, and baseball before focusing on baseball and football in high school. He planned to attend William & Mary University in the fall of 2003, but shortly before graduation, he was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He fought the disease and even made a comeback to the diamond, playing Senior Babe Ruth ball whenever he could and helped lead his team back to the playoffs.
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The Legends 13U AAU baseball team will be honored guests at Fenway Park this Tuesday when the Tampa Bay Rays are in town. After winning the New England tournament, the 13's were fifth at Nationals this summer. The Legends program is run by Salem's Mike Costantino and his brothers at Strike One in Danvers.
Eric Wedge, manager of the Cleveland Indians and one of the Strike One owners, was planning to honor the team when the Indians come to Fenway later this month, but since Cleveland is out of the pennant race, he arranged for the team to receive tickets to the Rays game. They will all walk in from center field with a large banner before the game.
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Tim Kiely had hoped his Cedar Rapids (Iowa) Kernels baseball team would make the Midwest (Single-A) League playoffs — and his wish came true. The Kernels put on a push in the second half of the season to earn the right to face Clinton (Iowa) LumberKings.
Kiely, who led Trinity (Conn.) College to the Division 3 World Series championship and was drafted by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in June, had a 5-1 record during the regular season as a reliever for the Kernels. His ERA was a stingy 2.0 in 36 innings pitched, and he appeared in 21 games. He was primarily a setup man and had two saves, allowing eight earned runs on 35 hits, walked eight and struck out 33.
Heading into last night's Game 2, Kiely and the Kernels led the best-of-3 series after a 3-0 win in Game 1.
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Jean DePlacido is a part-time writer and columnist for The Salem News. She lives in Peabody. Contact her at jmdeplacido@aol.com.
