The Lightning began the tournament with an 11-7 victory over Westport. RHS pitcher Ashley Mosimann was the winner, going the full seven innings to earn the victory. The Lightning hitting attack was lead by RHS players Stephanie Rizzi and Lizzie O’Connell, as well as, Linnea Logie, and who each had three hits. The real action began on early Saturday afternoon with the Rebels Lightning upsetting the Rebels Thunder by the score of 7-5. The Lightning jumped out to 6-1 lead, scoring 6 times in the third inning, led by O’Connell who knocked in 2 runs and had 2 hits in this game. Logie, Katie Taylor, and Alyssa Burns each had one hit and an RBI on the day as well for the Lightning. The Thunder came back to cut the lead to 7-5, on timely hitting from RHS varsity player Allie Falco who had two hits and 2 RBIs. Chelsea Davis and Jessica Whitman chipped in with 2 hits each as well. Down by 2 runs in the last inning, the Thunder had the bases loaded, with two outs with a full count on batter, April Churchill. Churchill fouled off 8 straight pitches before being struck out by winning Lightning pitcher Rachel Carnazza (another RHS player) to end the game in dramatic fashion.
The Lightning lost to the Greenwich Lady Redbirds 6-4 in their third game on Saturday, but the Thunder won a 2-1 thriller against the Trumbull Xplosion to earn their first win of the day. Falco was the hitting star in this game, knocking in both runs, including a booming walk-off home run to deep left center field to clinch the victory. RHS pitcher Amelia Romero was outstanding and recorded the win for the Thunder, striking out 9 batters and issuing only one walk during this contest.On Sunday in the semi-finals matchup, the Thunder took revenge on the Lightning, winning 15-7, eliminating the Lightning from the tournament. The Thunder then faced the task of having to beat the Greenwich Lady Redbirds two games in a row. The Rebels scratched out a 2-1 victory in the first game against the Redbirds. RHS player Theresa Mackey had the game winning RBI in the 4th inning, knocking in Churchill. Becky Leblanc and Romero combined to handle the pitching duties yielding only one run on 3 hits. They paired to strike out 6 Greenwich batters while walking only one.
In the championship game, the game was tied 2-2 until the top of the sixth inning, when the Redbirds scored 4 times on some timely hitting and 4 Thunder errors. The Thunder came roaring back to score 5 runs in the bottom of sixth inning and then shut down the Redbirds in the top of the seventh inning to earn a exciting comeback victory. The Rebels made three great defensive plays during the game to limit the Redbirds from scoring additional runs. Right fielder Brooke Lusita made a perfect throw home to cut down a runner trying to score from second base on a single to right field in the first inning and catcher Whitman threw out two runners trying to steal second base. Romero pitched the entire game to earn her third victory of the tournament.In other FCFSL tournament action, the Rebels fared well in the other divisions. The Rebels 10U team finished fifth out of 11 teams. In the 14U “A” championship, the Rebels 14U 98s were seeded third after Saturday’s pool play and were eliminated in the quarterfinals. In the 14U “B” championship, the Rebels 14U 87s were also seeded third after Saturday’s pool play and were subsequently eliminated in the quarterfinals.