Lightning striking twice in the same spot is said to be quite a rare thing.

Tuesday night at Free State High it happened not twice, but three times.

OK, so there was only one bolt from the skies. But the other two jolts from Lawrence’s Troy Wingert played a big part in the Raiders’ 10-0, run-rule blowout of Ozawkie Post 224 in an American Legion baseball game.

“It was just a great night to be playing baseball,” said Wingert, still drenched from the rain that delayed the game twice.

The weather only postponed the inevitable because the Raiders, who improved to 7-4, dominated from start to finish.

Wingert blasted a three-run home run to right-center field in the Raiders’ six-run first inning. The quick start provided enough support for Lawrence pitcher Dallas Worley, who struck out five in his first start of the season.

After the actual lightning strike  a bright and seemingly all-too-close flash that lit up the sky  Wingert relieved and closed the game with three consecutive strikeouts in the top of the fourth.

The former Lawrence High catcher who graduated this year said he didn’t use a special bat like the one Roy Hobbs used in “The Natural.” Hobbs’ bat was made from a tree struck by lightning.

“But I did ‘clear the mechanism,'” Wingert said, referring to the motto of Kevin Costner’s character, Billy Chapel, in the movie “For Love of the Game.”

While Wingert did the majority of the damage  he also hit a bloop double in the second that scored Matt Berner for Wingert’s fourth RBI  he received plenty of help from his Raider teammates.

Both Derek Bailey and Aaron Madill were 2-for-2 at the plate. Bailey ripped two line-drive singles, while Madill finished with a single and a triple.

Raiders coach Carl Brooks didn’t think the game would be quite as easy as it turned out, but he said he knew the Raiders would win.

“Both teams were throwing some pitchers they don’t normally throw, but the difference was we hit the ball and they didn’t,” Brooks said. “We just jumped on the ball in the first.”

Worley said he was excited about the effort that he and Wingert showed for the Raiders, who saved some of their top pitchers for this weekend’s tournament in Omaha, Neb.

“Coach calls us ‘Johnny All Staff,'” Worley joked. “We have a lot of guys that can help out.”

Tuesday it was Wingert, also making his first appearance on the mound, who aided the Raiders through a stormy night.

“We knew that it was going to be a tough game, but we also knew we could come out and win big like this if we did what we were supposed to,” he said.

Lawrence 10, Ozawkie 0

Post 224 0 Â 0 2 0

Raiders 622 x  10 11 0

Wreth Bradford, Matt Allison (2) and Abe Steinbach; Dallas Worley, Troy Wingert (4) and Tommy Mangino. LPÂBradford. WPÂWorley (1-0).

HRÂRaiders: Wingert.

Raiders Highlights: Troy Wingert 2-for-2, 3-run HR, 4 RBIs; Derek Bailey 2-for-2, 1 run, 1 RBI; Aaron Madill 2-for-2, 3B, 1 run, 1 RBI; Dallas Worley 5 strikeouts; Wingert 3 strikeouts.