2015 Thunder Outslugs Maroons in Lehigh Valley (PA) 25+ American

Lehigh Valley (PA) 25+ American Division

Thunder 13, Fountain Hills Maroons 12

‘Flores Shines in Relief for the Thunder’

Submitted by Bob Turley, Thunder manager

After a much needed bye week in the first round, the Thunder began its semi-final series against the Cardinals, which ended up being a truly epic series. Although we scored 37 total runs during the three game series, each game was very close and included many lead changes.

We advanced to the finals against the Fountain Hills Maroons who were considered by far the best pitching team in the 25+ American Division . They have two pitchers who have been clocked in the low 90’s. This series also went the full three games.

The final game of the series began with a flurry of Maroon runs. Although we were down 8-0 in the third inning, our team did not give up. Our shortstop, Andrew McConville, found several four leaf clovers and distributed them around to his teammates for luck. Well, we had come back from large deficits many times throughout our 2015 season and we were confident we could do it again but a little luck ‘o the Irish sure couldn’t hurt either! We slowly pecked away at their lead one inning at a time.

We put Will Flores in to pitch in relief and his gutsy performance held the Maroons at bay. Although Will Flores had been battling with several physical issues related to his back, he toughed it out and gave us a remarkable pitching performance. We ended up scoring two runs in the bottom of the eighth from a double by Matt Harper and an RBI rope by Kyle Duelley that put us ahead. We held them to zero runs in the top of the ninth, and won the game 13-12.

Brian Henninger had an impressive post-season batting average of .667 and Matthew Twietmeyer batted .478 with a team leading 11 hits during our post-season run.