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An 8-year-old boy electrocuted Friday next to the Reid Park ballfields had a strong current running through his body that shocked several would-be helpers, including a coach who then grabbed a wooden bat to use for chest compressions.

Coaches and others said Saturday that they did not believe lightning was the cause, either directly or indirectly, of the boy's electrocution, saying there were no signs of a strike close enough and that the sustained current shows the boy was not just shocked with a quick burst of electricity.

Tucson Fire Department Capt. Tricia Tracy said the initial 6:43 p.m. 911 call was for a lightning strike, but that the shock could have come from a light pole that could have been struck. City risk management officials are investigating, she said.

Tucson police would not comment Saturday on the incident, city Parks and Recreation and Risk Management officials could not be reached, and City Manager Mike Hein did not return a call seeking comment.

Once the weather turned stormy Friday, Bob Longoni, Southern Arizona assistant chairman of the American Legion league, began clearing the fields immediately, he said. "You have to do that as soon as lightning is within a certain distance. We'd see a flash, and two seconds later hear the thunder, so we cleared the field," he said.

Sahuarita coach Sam Gelardi said the boy, Deshaun Glover, was there to watch his brother play and that the boy was a frequent team manager and helper.

"After the games were called, he was at the corner of the dugout, just standing there, and there was a lot of talk like 'Deshaun, get in the dugout, come on!' But he was just standing there, like he was in a trance, shaking," Gelardi said. While Gelardi was putting helmets in a bag, Gelardi heard people screaming, and when he turned back around, Deshaun had fallen.

"He was convulsing. One of my players tried to grab him and got shocked off him. His mom tried to grab him, and she got shocked off him. There were five or 10 people, and we just kept getting shocked. As more rain came down, it pushed us back further and further.

"After about 10 minutes of him just dying on us in the water, his stepdad, Chuck Glover, came flying around the corner and in one swoop grabbed him — I don't know how he did it — Superman-style, and just flung him on his back."

With the boy out of the water, Gelardi started to administer CPR, but said he didn't get a pulse after 90 or so compressions. Several people took turns performing CPR until paramedics arrived, while other people were rushing to get out of the rain. About 40 people were crammed into the Sahuarita dugout.

"Everyone keeps asking me if there was lightning, did he get shocked off the pole, but there was never lightning when he was outside the dugout," said Gelardi, who last month gave CPR to a player who collided with another outfielder during a game. "It wasn't lightning hitting the pole and shocking him. There was some definite current underneath that area giving off electricity."

Longoni said that as he walked through the spot after Deshaun was moved, he felt electricity go through his feet, as did other people.

"In my mind I severely question lightning. Usually if something like that gets struck, you'd get sparks," said Longoni, who was an emergency medical technician with Northwest Fire in the 1980s.

"If there was a mistake that was made, nobody realized there was current coming out from wherever it was coming from," he said. "We were told it was lightning, so that's what made everybody unsure of the circumstances. But once lightning hits you and it leaves, it leaves.

"When I went to do compressions with an umpire and I touched him, there was a current going through him, and it started to go through me and everyone else who tried to help him," Longoni said. "He was laying on the ground and there was water everywhere, and I couldn't understand where the current was coming from and why it was going through him for that long. We grabbed a wooden bat and began compressions on his chest, but at that point I don't know how effective that was. I can tell you the child wasn't conscious at that point.

"Finally, the father came and gutted it out and picked him up and moved him. When his father picked him up and he struggled, there was no way he wasn't getting shocked. I tried and I don't look at myself as somebody who'd back down from a little pain, but it was like he had a hundred thousand bees on him. You could just feel the current going through him. He was untouchable. For his father to go up and grab him was extraordinary," Longoni said.

Deshaun was the team's manager, coming to the games with his older brother and picking up in the dugout, setting up bats and shagging foul balls.

"He's one of the kids I thought I'd be coaching in five or six years. He was a field rat. He loved baseball and hung around all the time, and he was going to be a star," Gelardi said.

Deshaun was a shortstop in the Copper Hill Little League, with a great swing already to go along with his knowledge and love of the game, Gelardi said.

"He just always liked hanging around. That's how kids learn, and that's how they become part of the team. He had a lot of 16-year-old and 17-year-old friends. He thought it was special to get to sit in the dugout during the games. It's a special time for younger brothers and older brothers to get together, and we're going to miss him, no doubt."

The remainder of the American Legion baseball tournament was canceled. "I just think that nobody's heart was in for playing after something like this," Longoni said. ". . . This is a little kid, and you have to have respect for the family."