Herts Baseball Club has confirmed that it has submitted an official application for the Herts Raptors to be promoted to the British Baseball Federation’s Double-A League.
The Raptors have been competing in the Single-A League which is Britain’s fourth league tier since their inception in 2008. In the first few seasons the team recorded modest results, but over the last two years has had winning seasons. Last year they recorded their best season to date. They finished top of their division in the regular season with 10 wins and 4 losses. This gave them an automatic place in the Single-A League national semi-finals. They lost to the Haverhill Blackjacks in a nail-biting game but despite this they were widely recognised as one of the top Single-A League teams in the UK.
The Raptors roster features a large number of the club’s outstanding generation of U17 players, many of whom are also members of the GB National Teams. The Club feels that the players have shown a level of performance which supports the application for promotion to the Double-A League, especially as the team’s young players will be a year older in 2014 and Double-A will be the right league level for the team and for the development of these young players who hope to progress through the GB Team ranks in the coming years.
The application is part of the league registration process which BBF clubs have been carrying out over the last few weeks. The four other Herts teams will remain in the leagues which they played in during the 2013 season – Herts Falcons in the NBL, Herts Ravens in the Triple-A League, Herts Hawks in Double-A League and Herts Eagles in Single-A.