The State - News from April 26, 1988

Seven young softball players struck by lightning on a Tustin playing field over the weekend were either discharged or hospitalized in good condition. The girls, ages 8 through 10, suffered second- and third-degree burns when the bolt struck an oak tree before a game at Edgewood Elementary School in Tustin. Two of the girls were discharged from local hospitals. Parents of the girls, meanwhile, said they do not blame the coach, John Bates, for directing the players under the tree when it began to rain. They praised him for providing resuscitation that may have saved one girl.