Photo: Days of Thunder

Baseball play was suspended for 10 days after 9/11/2001 but we all remember the day the NY Mets played the first game at home after the tragedy wearing hats with the initials of the FDNY and NYPD. When Mike Piazza hit that dramatic home run, we all cerebrated as a country, not just as a fan of a local team.

Ten years later, Livingston’s Thunder 14-U softball team opened their season. All of the teams playing in the Mt. Olive Back to School Tournament wore yellow ribbons commemorating 9/11.

In the opening game, the Thunder played the NJ Spirit. With strong pitching from Olivia Cordero, good defense and a lot of offense, the Thunder won by the score of 17-4.  The team had to quickly pack up their gear and travel by car to the next field to play their second game.  In the second game against the Voorhees Stars, the Thunder girls won behind a solid pitching effort by Sydney McCormack by the score of 9-3. This set up the championship match-up against a Kittatinny team that also won both of their games but got to sit around and watch as the Thunder and Stars slugged it out. In the end, the Kittatinny team was just too much and the Thunder ran out of gas, losing the game by the score of 8-2 to take second place in the tournament.