FAYETTEVILLE — A.J. Lewis had just arrived at his host home in Massachusetts last summer when he heard a knock on his door.
Lewis, a catcher from Eastern Kentucky at the time, had taken a red-eye flight into New England and was about 20 minutes into his sleep. On the other side of the door was his summer housemate, Robert Emery, a catcher from San Francisco who was his teammate with the Orleans Firebirds.
"He said, 'Dude we’re about to go to the field. Do you want to go hit?'" Lewis recalled. "From there on we’ve been best friends.